


Howling in the Moonlight (season 3)

by NekoAliceYamiYaoi



Series: Howling in the Moonlight [3]
Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, I'll tag as I write, M/M, Magic-Users, Slow Build Relationships, Supernatural Elements, Werewolf!Thomas, and with that I mean the last two, but there will be hints of them, carnival themed, minho and teresa aren't going to be together in this season, seer!minho, the same with gally and aris, witch!aris, witch!newt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-10-25 01:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 66,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10753827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoAliceYamiYaoi/pseuds/NekoAliceYamiYaoi
Summary: Blythe and Black's Pandemonium Shadow Show howls into Beacon Hills at three in the morning two weeks before Halloween. Under its carnival tents is a mirror maze that steals souls; a carousel that promises eternal happiness, in exchange for your life; the Whishing Star, the ultimate attraction of the circus that seems to be more than it leads on; and Mr. Black, the ringmaster, who has lived for centuries off the misery of others. Thomas and the pack have to stop this ancient evil— that is before it's too late.





	1. Something Wicked This Way Comes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super excited to share the third season with you, guys!! This season is circus/carnival themed! Even though it's not October, this season will be settled in October (two weeks before Halloween, to be exact).  
> Okay, so this happens a couple of weeks right after the second season.  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter as well as the entire season!

The night was cold and silent; of course it would be like that if it was three in the morning on the last week of October. Well, _'almost'_ last week of October. The streets of Beacon Hills were empty, as everyone was sleeping right now. Not even the sound of cars were heard until it happened: the distinctive sound of a motor, driving over the streets, lifting some pebbles as it made its way into the town. Heavy trailers and wagons followed behind, and as soon as it appeared in scene, it came to a stop. The sound of a heavy door being open was heard and then a pair of black boots, high black heels, blue  & white converse and maroon boots appeared, stepping on the ground and out of the main trailer. Four shadows admired the look of the empty and quiet streets of Beacon Hills before the main man, holding a bright red cane-like scepter with a red bat statuette on the top of the staff holding a bright red crystal ball smiled and said,

"It's show time."

 

* * *

 

At the morning, Thomas was getting ready for school over his bedroom. He changed into a dark brown t-shirt, jeans and navy Nike shoes. Under his shirt he wore his dog tag with the inscription: **'To Thine Own Self Be True'**. Staring at the mirror over his bathroom, he ran a hand through his hair and he was ready. He went to his room, grabbed his backpack and went downstairs to get some breakfast.

He entered the kitchen, throwing his backpack on the floor and walking to the fridge passing Mary, who was standing over the oven making breakfast. Thomas opened the fridge, took out the juice carton and drank directly from it. The brown haired woman took the carton away from him, giving him a look,

" _'Good morning'_." she reproached.

Thomas nodded, wiping his mouth before saying "Sorry. Good morning." he looks around, "Where's Vince?"

Mary turned back to the oven, "He had to go and retrieve some files back at the station. Don't worry, he'll be back for dinner."

"Great."

Thomas looks around the kitchen until his eyes fall over the kitchen table, where a pair of warm toasts and a bar of butter are. He grabs one toast and a knife to spread butter over the toast 'cus everyone knows a buttered toast is one of the easiest grab-and-go meals you can make. Mary turns around as he's taking the first bite. Thomas grabs his backpack from the floor and runs out of the kitchen as Mary puts her hands over her hips,

"Hey, aren't you gonna have breakfast?"

"Can't, running late!"

The woman rolls her eyes, muttering 'typical' and turns back to the oven to finish making her breakfast.

Thomas arrives at school and goes straight to his locker. As he opens the door of his locker, he gets the sweet scent of cinnamon and immediately turns around with a big smile but instead of blond hair he finds Aris standing beside him, smirking at him,

The lighter brunet witch takes out a small recipient -a perfume one- and holds it so Thomas can see it, "I knew you were gonna fall for that!"

"Hell is filled with people like you."

"You have no idea how right you are." says a voice behind them.

Gally approaches them and stands beside the witch, who rolls his eyes at him. Thomas is glad that even with what happened at the Luna Nova Academy Gally is still the same. Sure, he seemed a little gloomy for a few days when they came back, but he got over it. It's never easy to lose someone you cared for.

Thomas saw Teresa walking towards them out of the corner of his eye, books over her arms. She smiled at them,

"Hey, guys. Do any of you understand the History homework? I couldn't understand anything the teacher said."

Before anyone could answer her, which probably was going to be Gally judging by the way he turned to her and opened his mouth, they heard a familiar voice calling for them,

_"Hey guys! Guys!"_

They turn to see Minho running towards them. Once the raven boy catches up with them, he takes a deep breath,

"Did you hear? There's a carnival in town! Like, a cool one! And they're only going to be here until October ends! Apparently they installed here yesterday."

Teresa frowns, "I didn't hear anything last night."

"Neither did I, but we should totally check it!" he says with the excitement of a five year old.

"Sure. I mean, unless you have something else to do?" he asks to the others.

Teresa shakes her head.

"We'll go." answers Aris for Gally and himself. The tall sandy blond nods, not opposed to the idea.

The first bell rings. The rest of the pack goes back to either their lockers or to their classrooms, saying they'll meet over lunch. Thomas takes out his books and decides to search for his boyfriend, who he hasn't seen since yesterday.

As he walks towards the end of the hallway and turns around the corner, he spots Newt taking his books out of his locker and he smiles.

Now that he thinks about it, not only Gally, but everyone was doing better. Thomas continued his training even though his dad wasn't there, but he knows his dad would be proud to see him training. Although Minho didn't had anyone to help him with his visions, before they left the magic world Gally's mom Diana gave him a book with several things about oracles, clairvoyants and seers. Minho told him that as soon as they came back he started reading it. The Brit continued his magical training with Aris and he said his mom also helped him control his magic. He was doing better, his magic in so much control every passing day.

Thomas approaches him from the left, "Hey, you."

Newt turns to him and smiles, "Hey. Fancy seeing you here."

"Yeah, I was about to go to my classroom and sit and wait for the teacher like the good student I am but then I remembered I forgot something."

"And what is that?"

Thomas leans down to kiss the blond witch over the lips. It last about five seconds before they pull away.

"Mm, much better."

Newt chuckles, closing his locker, "You're such a sap."

"But I'm your sap." Thomas offers his arm like a gentlemen and Newt laughs, but he accepts it, hugging his boyfriend's arm as they walk over the hall and to their classroom just as the second bell rings.

 

* * *

 

At the sheriff's station, a guy wearing a werewolf mask was being held by a deputy as he spoke with another deputy. Once he finished, he dragged the other man to where the cells where; as the deputy took him away, Vince walked beside him and tore off his mask, giving it a grumpy look before throwing it to the desk where Alec was sitting.

"It's not even Halloween and these sick crazy people are already out in the street wearing masks and scaring people."

"Well, sir, Halloween tends to bring out the best and worst in people."

"What does it brings out in you?"

Alec smiles, "I hope the best."

Vince smiles too. The main door opens and another guy wearing a mask was being dragged in, but this time his mask was a typical Jason Voorhees's hockey mask and Vince groans at seeing it. The older man walks back to his office, leaving the forensic scientist alone. Soon after he left, Dick approached the brunet scientist standing beside the desk,

"He still doesn't like Halloween?" he asks looking at Vince as he enters his office.

"It's not that he doesn't like it, it's just that there's a lot of work during this season."

Dick holds up the werewolf mask from the desk and stares at it. Alec just watches him.

"So you're saying I'm gonna have to get used to seeing people wearing this kind of things until Halloween ends?"

"Yeah,"

"And what about the psychos that roam around the town? I shouldn't be worried about them?"

"No, the worst things they have done on this season is set a paper bag on fire over someone's porch and cover an entire house with toilet paper."

"Wicked." he puts the mask down. "Well, if something Halloween-esque happens, notify me."

Alec nods and watches the tall blond walk towards the bathrooms and disappear in the corner. Alec's eyes fall over the werewolf mask over the desk and he just stares at it.

 

* * *

 

After school, the pack gathered around and went in Gally's truck to where the carnival was. Once they got there, they saw that there were already people, no doubt that the carnival had done an excellent job at making people interested. There were some trailers painted in black parked around the place, obviously the ones where all the stuff was transported. Big tents were also set in different places and then there was the biggest one in the center and that had to be the main attraction or something. There was a Mirror Maze that seemed interesting, a big and fancy carousel where kids where happily smiling at their parents and couples were sitting together, another tent that had a big shining star on top, and more.

The pack approached the entrance as Gally and Aris went to pay for their tickets. While admiring the whole picture, a voice caught theirs as well as everyone's attention,

"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and ghouls! Step right up!"

A man with black hair, dressed with black clothes, somehow like a gothic ringmaster ([x](http://www.halloweenforum.com/attachments/halloween-costume-ideas/213275d1410067274-help-gothic-ringmaster-costume-gothcostume4.jpg)), and holding a red scepter with a red bat statuette appeared out of nowhere, getting on top of one of the trailers,

"Behind this curtain lies a ghastly concoction of... Delight! Horror! Fantasy and terror!" he raises his scepter, taking a bow, "Your every wish is our command! Your every whimsical desire brought to life!" then he takes a step back, "But I'm warning you... There's always a price!" he grins and then points while turning around to the whole carnival behind him, "Welcome to Pandemonium Shadow Show!"

Everyone started applauding, so Thomas and the pack supposed they should to the same. They applauded too. While taking a bow, accepting the applauses, the man introduced himself,

"My name is Pitch Black and I'm the ringmaster, at your orders."

As the man got off the trailer, Minho turned to his best friend, "I'm so excited!"

"Okay, let's get going!"

"Yeah!" they all agreed. They went to walk a bit and to see all the attractions. As they walked, Thomas spoke,

"So, where first? We can try the carousel, Ferris wheel, Tilt-A-Whirl-

"Cotton candy!" yelled Teresa as she pointed to the front.

"I want a pink one!" yells Minho as he and Teresa run to where the cotton candy man is.

Thomas laughs at seeing the two of them and then turns to Newt, "Would you like to join me at the carousel?"

Newt smiles at him, "I thought you'd never ask." he gives the brunet his hand and they both walk to where the carousel could be seen.

Gally and Aris stay where they were, just behind Thomas and watch them go. The lighter brunet witch speaks first,

"So they completely forgot that we were here, huh? We're the extras."

"Don't call us that."

Aris goes to laugh but then his grin dies on his lips. He looks around like a frightened cat but only sees people walking and talking and laughing and nothing strange.

Gally notices it, "What?"

"I thought..." he shakes his head and dismisses whatever he thought he felt, "Nothing. Let's get into a ride."

After Thomas and Newt came down from the carousel, they all went to the Tilt-A-Whirl and enjoyed the ride. Next, they went to see as a 'magician' did a trick and tried to avoid hearing Aris' muttering of _'you call that magic?'_ and _'even when I'm a cat I can do more magic than that'_ , but neither less they enjoyed it. Minho and Teresa went back to the Tilt-A-Whirl and Aris and Newt competed in one of those water gun games with the lighter brunet witch winning. He won a green eyed, black cat plush. The pack laughed at the resemblance.

They were walking towards another ride when Thomas, not paying attention to where he was going, ended up colliding with something- or more like someone. Turning around and looking to the person he collided with, Thomas saw a beautiful tall woman with black jet hair and dark eyes. She was wearing a black lace trapeze costume that showed her long legs with black high heel stilettos ([x](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/98/cf/62/98cf627cb60d2000a98ba16c7f8ad7be.jpg)). But her most notable characteristic was that her body was covered in tattoos ([x](http://lefunny.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Tattoo-girl.jpg)). She was kind of intimidating. But also there was something weird about her. She was looking right back at him without moving a muscle and before Thomas could say or do something, the ringmaster was with them in a blink.

"Oh, don't worry, kids. This is my second in command, Gothika. And don't let her tattoos trick you, she's a total lady." he says with a wink.

"It's okay. I was just..." Thomas didn't know what to say. It would be rude to say that he thought something was weird with her.

"Distracted by her beauty? It happens a lot."

Thomas can feel a flush over his face but it was because he could feel Newt sending him a look. Minho cackled behind him.

The ringmaster continues, "There's gonna be a show including her in a couple of minutes. You should totally go and watch it." not waiting for them to answer he turns to Gothika, "Gothika, hon, you should go and get ready."

The raven woman didn't say anything; she turned around and let the man guide her through the people. Once they were gone, Newt turns to the brunet werewolf with a grin,

"So, distracted by her beauty?

"Uuh.... Umm, uh..."

"You're still as eloquent as ever." he turns around and continues walking.

As he walks away, Thomas groans and smacks his forehead. He then turns to his best friend, who keeps chuckling.

"You are not helping!"

"I'm sorry, bro, but that was so funny!"

Thomas actually growls at him and then runs towards Newt.

"He does know that Newt isn't mad or jealous, right?" Teresa says beside him.

"Naah, let's leave him be."

A couple of minutes later when the show was about to begin, they followed the people and went to the big black tent. They entered the tent and saw that there was already a big number of persons inside the tent, talking between them. Thomas and the pack found a place where they could stand and as they did, they all saw a big tank of water in the middle of the stage and a big clock behind the audience. There were two muscular men up on the deck above the tank. And talking about something above the tank, there was another kind of smaller tank but a velvet curtain covered it. Gothika, now wearing a black vest and black pants appeared from behind the curtains. She went to climb onto the deck right above the tank and as she did, the curtain that was covering the tank -which was revealed to be a cage- fell and revealed a cage full of piranhas right above the water tank. Thomas kind of had a bad feeling.

"Okay, everyone! I hope you're ready!" Gothika spoke and she seemed to be far more enthusiastic than before, "This show ain't for the faint of heart. When the timer reaches zero, a tank full of flesh eating piranhas will fall from above!"

The two men locked her feet up with a chain. Then they moved to her hands and cuffed them. Once she was ready, the audience started counting,

"One, two, three!"

At three, the two men pulled off her black suit to show a silver sparkly swimsuit underneath with matching sparkling shoes. The whole audience cheered louder at that. She even posed and smiled. She winked at the audience and a bell rang, starting the clock, which caused her to drop into the tank. She instantly began to work on getting the cuffs off. She got the one on her right hand off, showed it to the public with a smile, and then she began on the bottom. The audience cheered louder as she got her chains off. The clock reached 20. Gothika then went to grab the chains from the bottom, pulling at them but instead of what was supposed to happen, the chain didn't untangled. By the way her hands moved she seemed to be in panic. She tried to get the cuff from her hand off but couldn't get it undone; so she starts hitting the glass and opening her mouth, but her screams were muffled by the water. Suddenly everyone fell silent as they realized what was happening.

"Oh my god, she can't get out!" someone yelled in the crowd.

Everyone panicked, gasps surrounding the place. Thomas and the pack looked at each other with wide eyes as some guys went to the tank, trying to help. A guy yelled something along the lines of _'go get some help!'_. The clock was reaching the 50 when another guy went and grabbed a pole from near and started to pound on the tank in an effort to break the glass. He couldn't break it. Thomas felt adrenaline pump all over his body but he couldn't do anything. He couldn't unless he revealed himself. Gothika then tried to pull at her chains again and finally got them off of her feet and swam up to the top just as the timer hit zero, but she hadn't been fast enough. She took a deep breath once she reached the top and then the piranhas fell on top of her. Everyone saw as the piranhas entered the tank with the woman. The water splashing around, Gothika moving inside the tank and the piranhas surrounding her. She continued screaming and then water turned red, making the audience yell harder in horror. Teresa covered her mouth and Thomas' eyes were wide open. The water continued gushing out from the tank as the water turned even redder. Some people were still hitting at the glass but it was futile. The last thing the audience heard was her screaming and then-

_"Come on! This is bullshit!"_

Thomas -as well as everyone else there- turned around to where the voice came from to find Gothika standing there, soaking wet but very much alive and without any injury.

"Whoever came up with this is a sick sadist!"

Everyone started to applaud to her, totally impressed with the whole act. She even went to high five some of the audience as they continued. Thomas and the pack let out a big sigh of relief at that. They even applauded at her too.

 

* * *

 

As they were exiting the tent where Gothika's performance had happened, the pack found the ringmaster Mr. Black greeting and thanking the public for watching the show. He saw the pack and approached them with a big smile,

"What did you thought of the show?" he asked.

"It was awesome!" Minho says.

"I was so scared when she couldn't get out, but I'm with Minho. It was awesome." Teresa says.

"Well, I'm so glad you like it! Gothika is truly the best. But don't stop there; go and see the wonders under the tents!"

"We will." Thomas says.

Mr. Black moves aside to let them pass and continues thanking the people coming out of the tent. As they were walking, Teresa and Minho were talking,

"It was so exciting! No wonder the name it's kind of scary. How do you think they did it?" asks the raven girl.

"I don't know. Who do I look like? David Cooperfield?" he turns to Thomas, "So? Where to now?"

"Well, there are still rides and other attractions we can see and the carnival isn't going anywhere. Maybe we can call it for today and come back tomorrow."

"Why? You getting sleepy?" Minho asks with a grin.

"I wanna try that!" Teresa says as she points at another game and without saying anything else, she grabs Thomas' arms and pulls him along.

They ended up staying two more hours, but hey, it was really fun. As Newt and Teresa finished their corn dog, Thomas and Gally got off the roller coaster and went towards them.

"So? How was it?" Aris asked standing beside Newt as he took a sip from his drink.

"Wanna try it?" Thomas asks.

"No, thanks. Maybe another day."

"What, afraid of roller coasters?"

"No." he nods at Gally, "But I don't wanna look like him."

They turn to see the tall sandy blond and he looked kind of... sick. A little bit dizzy and as if he were gonna puke.

"You're a knight, for god's sake. Take it like a man." Aris says.

"I think it has to do with the four corn dogs he ate along with Minho." Newt says and now that he mentions it...

Thomas looks around,

"Where's Minho?"

 

* * *

 

Coming out of the bathroom, Minho finished wiping his hands with the paper towel, not looking around at his surroundings.

"Thank god there was a bathroom in here, or else I would've died. I wonder if you can die for holding liquids and corn dogs for a long time? I should ask Teresa, she knows about--" he looks around and quickly notices that instead of the outside, he's inside another tent, "--where did you get yourself into, Minho?"

He continued walking even when he didn't know where he was going and saw a white light coming from the end of the hall so he decided to follow it. Maybe it was the exit. But once he got closer, he saw what appeared to be a cellar with something shining on top. But inside the cellar was a different story. Inside Minho saw -judging by the profile- a young girl sitting on the ground, her back at him while looking at some point in the front; she was wearing a long lilac dress, and it covered her legs, so he couldn't see more. What he did could see was her curly, long red hair that looked like flames. She was slender and though she was sitting on the ground, Minho guessed she was a little bit smaller than him.

He cleared his throat, "Um... Hi?"

The girl turned around to where the voice came and Minho could admire her beautiful emerald eyes and red lips. God was she gorgeous ([x](http://www.iaam.com/artimages/lifestyle/K-McNamara.jpg)). As she turned to fully face him, the Asian male thought he heard a metallic sound, but ignore it. She stared back at him for a moment before looking down at her lap, her hands brushing her dress.

"What do you wish for?"

Minho blinked in confusion. He looked around thinking someone else was there but found no one. "I'm sorry?"

She sighs, seemingly tired. "I said _'What do you wish for?'_ That's why you're here, no?"

Minho walks towards the cellar, "Uh, no, actually. I got lost and... just felt drawn in here, I suppose." he says looking around. He looks back at the girl, "So, what are you?" his eyes widen, "I mean...! I'm sorry! Who are you?"

She smiles, "Relax, it's okay."

"...So?"

The girl raises her hand, pointing over her head still looking at him. He follows her hand and sees in white neon lights a signboard that said **'Wishing Star'**.

"So... You make wishes come true?"

"Yes." she smiled mischievously -but without malice-, "Wanna see?"

Minho blinked twice. "Sure."

The girl goes to stand up but before she could do something-

_"Hey!"_

Both startled, Minho turned to his back and saw the tattooed lady -Gothika- standing over the same way Minho came, her hands on her hips. She was staring right at Minho.

"What are you doing here?"

"I, uh, got lost. Sorry." he said scratching the back of his neck.

"Okay. But you aren't allowed to be here if you didn't pay, so I'm going to ask you to accompany me to the exit."

"Oh." Minho looked at the girl and back at the front, "Sure."

Without saying goodbye to the girl -he felt weird saying it in front of the lady- he walked towards Gothika. As she accompanied Minho to the exit, she glanced back at the girl over the cellar and sent her a menacing look. The girl with the red curls looked at the ground and brought her legs to her chest, hugging them closer. Her dress got into a bundle over her lap, raising it a little enough to show the leg iron on her left leg.

 

* * *

 

After they found Minho, they decided to call it for today and Gally drove them to their houses. Thomas had finished his homework after he took a shower and was putting his stuff away when there was a knock on his door.

"Come in!"

The door opened and Mary peeked inside the room with a smile. Thomas smiled back and went to sit on his bed,

"Hey. You just arrived?"

The brunet woman leans against the doorframe, "Yeah, long day. Vince told me you went to the carnival. Did you have fun?"

"Yeah. Actually, we planned going tomorrow after school too if we don't have too much homework."

"Okay." she nods, "If you win a teddy bear or something adorable give it to me." she says with a wink.

Thomas chuckles but he nods.

"I'll pick the fluffiest one for you."

"Alright then. I just wanted to know if you had fun. I'm going to bed now." she goes to exit the room, "Good night."

"'night." the door closed.

Thomas stood up from his bed and turned off the lights. He approached his bed and threw himself at it, his face hiding over the pillow for a moment before he turned it to the side and stared at his nightstand clock. The blurry red numbers were the last thing he saw before he fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

The next day at school Minho and Teresa were at their Math class while the others were scattered around. Thomas was probably at his Econ class with Newt. The teacher was writting over the board, her back at the classroom as she wrote the formulas and equations. Teresa was paying attention, writing down the formulas in neat writing. Minho was fighting with his pen as it seemed the ink had ran out; he frowned and tried to write again and this time it did work, only it left a big ink stain. Minho went to touch it and dirtied his hands. He put his hand to the side and instead dirtied one of his notes with the ink on his hands, causing him to curse. Aside from that, the whole classroom was silent, except for the occasional cough and murmuring between friends.

Suddenly a bird splatters against the window, catching everyone's attention, even the teacher. There's a stain of blood left in the place where the bird collided. Minho frowns as Teresa turns to look at him. The teacher puts the chalk down. She had a bewildered expression as she began to walk towards the window. Everyone turned to look at the window: a flock (dozens) of black birds -maybe crows- made its appearance in the distance. Slowly, then all at once, the crows were hitting the glass, splattering it with their blood and feathers before, in slow motion, one crow broke through, falling into the classroom. Crow after crow broke through the glass; the crashing of glass sounded through the room as the room was swarming with them.

 _"GET DOWN! EVERYONE!"_ yelled the teacher over the screams and sounds of breaking glass.

Everyone threw themselves on the ground and under their desks. Desks were overturned as some students tried to crawl away from the chaos or to find a hiding place. Even the teacher dived for her desk. Minho made his way towards Teresa, who had tried to go under her desk but just managed to get beside it, covering her face from the crows as she cry out. The Asian male launched to her and shielded her with his body. Some crows even start pecking at people's heads.

The teacher was covering one student, the boy hiding his face on her chest as she yelled _"GET DOWN! GET DOWN!"_

Then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Half the class got out of their hiding spots to look at their surroundings. The classroom was a complete disaster. Desks were overturned, papers, birds and glass scattered the floor. Students were disheveled, many of them with cuts and scratches on their faces and arms. Minho and Teresa rose from behind a desk, the male removing his arm from her head. Teresa peeked from the desk, her hair tussled over her face. With a strange silence over the room, they stood up in a somehow unsteadily way, just as the rest of the students and looked around.

An ambulance was called for the ones who had nasty wounds and to check in general. Other classes had heard what happened and were outside their classrooms and over the hallways, murmuring between them as the paramedics checked the injured. Thomas, along with Newt, Gally and Aris were over the crowd near the door. Inside the classroom Thomas saw Minho holding his left arm while standing beside Teresa, who was sitting over a desk with disheveled hair and something inside him moved. He made his way through the students and ran to his friends.

"Are you okay?" he asked both of them.

"Yeah, just... a little mauled." Minho says still holding his arm.

"It was the most bizarre thing I've seen." Teresa says, "Everything was so quiet and then... splat! One bird crashed against the window... And the dozens followed."

Minho turns to Thomas, "One could've been an accident, two maybe, but this?" he says looking around the classroom and Thomas sees the death crows over the floor. "This is something else."

As Minho looks over his arm and turns to Teresa to ask her if it looked like he would need stitches or something, Thomas looked around the classroom one more time and then to the door where Newt, Aris and Gally stood along the other students. Thomas doesn't know why, but he had a bad feeling about this.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any notes? Comments? Suggestions? Questions?  
> Another thing: the reheaded girl Minho found? Yep, that's Sonya, not just a character with the face of Kat McNamara.  
> And this is not going to be the last time you see her ;)


	2. I Can Thrill You More Than Any Ghost Would Ever Dare Try

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't upload the chapter on Friday! I got busy and yesterday was my sister's birthday, so...  
> Anyways, chapter two is ready, I hope you like it. A little bit of gore at the beginning of the chapter, but don't worry, it's not too much. I'm not even sure if it falls in the 'gore' category.
> 
> I dedicate this chapter to _myotpswillbethedeathofme_ , _ajandrea_ , and _alexa_tghn_ as well as the guests who read and left kudos to this story! Thank you so much and I'm so happy that you enjoyed it!

On a quiet night over a blue house, two girls were the over the blonde's bedroom, talking and laughing as the movie they were watching came to an end. The blonde and owner of the house, Sandra, picked the control and turned off the TV. She turned to her best friend Emma, who was over the other bed.

"I love our girls only nights!" she said to Emma while clutching a pillow.

" _'Girls only'_? Like when you invited Connor over and I had to spend the night with my earphones on?"

The blonde girl throws her a pillow while chuckling, "That was one time, Emma!"

"Ready for school tomorrow?"

"Ugh, why did you have to remind me?"

"Because if not then you won't wake up early, and I'm not gonna let your lazy ass ruin my perfect assistance." she rolls over the bed and stands up, walking to the boudoir and picking up her towel with her pajamas inside. "Now if you excuse me I'm gonna take a shower." she's about to go into her friend's bathroom when the other stops her.

"Oh! Use the bathroom at the end of the hall. Mine doesn't have hot water." she gives her a sheepishly smile, "Sorry,"

Emma rolls her eyes but she smiles back and exits the room. As her friend walks through the hallway to the bathroom, Sandra stirs over her bed and is about to grab her phone when she hears a strange noise outside her window. She frowns and decides to investigate; standing up from her bed she slowly approaches the window and stares at it. She moves to open it but there's nothing outside. As she's about to peek her head out, someone appears right in front of her, making her yelp but she covers her mouth when she sees who it is.

"Connor!" the guy chuckles. She moves aside to let her boyfriend enter her bedroom, "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't that obvious?" he said with a grin and a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"I can't tonight. I told you Emma was coming over!" she glances at the door, "You need to leave, now!"

"Where is she?"

"She's in the shower right now."

"So?"

"So?"

"Didn't you say that she took between 30-40 minutes while showering? Let's use that time wisely."

The blonde girl smiled and brought her boyfriend over her bed, lying down with him hovering above her and then they started making out. The guy's hands were roaming over her legs, coming to a stop over her hips while her hands were over his hair, bringing him closer to her lips. While showering, Emma started mumbling a song that she heard on the radio that morning. She poured some shampoo and closed her eyes as water fell over her face. The water kept pouring as she showered.

Almost an hour later -the redhead girl decided to use the warm water to peacefully shave- Emma finished her shower and grabbed her towel over the sink, wrapping it around her body. She grabbed the other towel and dried her hair with it. Once she was done, she dried her body to put on her pajamas and go to the room. Exiting the bathroom, she found the hallway in complete darkness, the only light coming from the bathroom she was exiting. She didn't mind and went straight to her friend's room.

She went to Sandra's bedroom and opened the door, only to find the room in pitch darkness. Was her friend already asleep? _'That was unusual.'_ With a frown on her face, she goes to turn on the light when she hears what appears to be a muffled moan and she quickly realizes that her friend is not alone. _'That is not unusual.'_

"Oh, sorry!" she says moving her hand away from the light switch.

She covers her eyes as she walks to her bed, ignoring the muffle sounds coming from her friend; there's some rustling over her friend's bed too. Emma sits on her bed, her back to Sandra, and grabs her phone and earphones from the nightstand and plugs them on. She lies on her side, facing the other side of the room to give the pair more privacy. With her friend and boyfriend's noises drowned out, she closed her eyes and let the music lull her.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, the redhead girl slowly opens her eyes at the sunlight of the new day entering through the window. She stretches over the bed and then proceeds to sit up, bringing a hand to scratch her messy hair. Still blinking the sleep from her eyes, she turns to her friend's bed and finds the blanket covering her whole body with only her silhouette visible. The girl hadn't waked up yet.

"Sandra, come on. Let's get some breakfast." she yawns a little more and as she rubs her eyes she looks at the other bed again, but her friend hasn't answered. "Sandra, I'm starving! Come on," she adds with a chuckle, but there's no answer again. The redhead frowns, "Sandra?"

She gets up from the bed and walks to her best friend's bed, standing beside it. Seeing no movement, not even a breathing one, she bites her lip and goes to slowly reach the blanket. With a slightly trembling hand she reached the blanket and in one swift she removes it, finding her best friend's body covered in blood, eyes still open. She covers her mouth horrified, and turns around to go to the door but then she sees something written over the wall near the door. There, written on what appears to be blood was:

**"AREN'T YOU GLAD YOU DIDN'T TURN ON THE LIGHT?"**

The girl lets out a screeching scream.

 

* * *

 

Thomas' eyes snap wide open, pupils contracting at the light entering his bedroom through his ajar window. He blinks a few times to get used to the light and tries to remember why he woke up like that. He sworn he heard something... Something like a scream. Or maybe he was imagining it? Who knows. Still lying on his back, he turns his head to the left and sees his clock marking 6:30 a.m. He goes to get up but a hand over his chest prevents him from doing so. He looks down at the sleepy blond witch beside him, eyes still closed but he was kind of awake now.

"Mmm, Tommy, where are you going?" he asked while nuzzling closer to Thomas.

"Nowhere, I was just gonna stretch out a little."

The blond pouts, "No. Comfy. Don't move."

"You do realize that we have to get up in about 20 minutes to get ready to go to school?"

"I'll get up in 10 minutes."

Thomas didn't argue with him. He lies down again, this time on his side facing Newt who still had his eyes closed. Whatever it was that woke him up, he was thankful for it as it gave him the opportunity to admire his boyfriend's sleeping face.

 

* * *

 

Patrols and officers were around the blue house, yellow police lines around it and deputies trying to keep the neighbors in a safe distance. Emma was sitting over the back of the ambulance with a deputy asking her some questions. She had a blanket around her and she was staring off at the distance. Dick and the sheriff arrived at the house and entered the house, going upstairs to the blond girl's room and the crime scene. Alec was already there, taking photos of the bed, the floor and the wall with the message written in blood on it. He saw the two men and nodded at them, acknowledging them and continued taking photos.

"What do we have here?" asks the sheriff to Dick.

"Sandra Ellison, 16 years old. She and her best friend Emma Pointer were alone in the house for the week; Sandra's parents were out of the town for a family matter." he approaches the window, "They would've returned tomorrow."

"It's gotta be horrible to come back only to find out about this." Alec says while putting his camera down. Dick nods, agreeing with him.

They go out of the house to let the examiners do their work, leaving Alec inside as he still had to take photos; the deputy who had taken the girl's statement approached them.

"So? What did she said?" asks the sheriff.

"She took a shower, came back to the room, said goodnight to each other and then went to sleep."

"That's it?" asks Dick.

"What did you expected? A full description of whoever did this?"

Dick glares at him but doesn't say anything else. He doesn't know why, but there's...something out of place. The deputy turns around and leaves. As the sheriff is talking to another deputy, Dick sees Emma still sitting in the back part of the ambulance but now alone, the blanket still over her shoulder. Making sure no one is looking, he starts walking towards her and approaches the redhead, "Hey. Emma? Look," he looks around to make sure no one can hear them, "If there's something you're not telling us..." the girl avoids his eyes, "You're not going to be in troubles, no matter what it is." she's still not meeting his eyes, "Please, we're trying to help."

Emma looks up at him, eyes watering and she licks her lips. She takes a moment before she speaks, "When I came back from showering... The lights were off and for a moment I thought she had gone to sleep, but..."

"But...?"

"But then I heard a muffled noise and I thought she was with her boyfriend. It had happened one time so I thought that maybe he had come and they were..."

"Fooling around?"

She nods, "So I didn't turn on the light. I went to the bed and grabbed my earphones to put them on while they were over her bed. I put them on and could still hear some noises coming from her so I turned on the music and then I fell asleep." she sniffs, "Oh my God." she looks up at him again and horrified she asks "Was Sandra murdered while I was sleeping next to her?"

Dick didn't know what to say to comfort the girl but fortunately he didn't have to as her parents had just arrived and ran to her. The redhead started crying once in her mom's arms and her father hugging them both. The blond FBI agent moved away to give them space. As he walked away, the sheriff finished talking to the deputy, so he approached the older man.

"We're gonna have to talk to the boyfriend." he says.

"Why?"

"He's the last one to see the victim alive."

 

* * *

 

Thomas was walking towards school as he had missed the bus 'cus he had been goofing around because he had been so happy at having Newt over his room. After the alarm went off, Newt had to go back home so his godparents wouldn't know he had been there in the first place. That would be awkward. As he got closer to the school, he saw a crowd of students in the front part. They were whispering and mumbling but he couldn't quite understand what they were saying; he spotted Minho and Teresa somewhere over the crowd and approached them.

"What's happening?" he asks as soon as he's standing beside his best friend.

"Didn't you hear?" Thomas shakes his head.

Teresa is the next to speak, "A student was murdered last night. That, added to what happened yesterday with the birds they say there's not gonna be classes today. Maybe not even tomorrow."

"What?" he looks at the front where the teachers are.

Minho nods, "Yeah. I should be happy that there's no gonna be classes today because I had an essay to deliver but this is some other level." he shakes his head in a disapproving way, "First, the birds. Now this? I thought we were gonna have a break or something."

"A break from what?"

"From the supernatural stuff, of course."

Thomas frowns, "Wait. You think this has to do with something supernatural?"

Minho throws his hands up in the air in an exaggerated way, "Why not? It sure did the other times!"

"Yeah, but not every time a murder happens it has to do with supernatural stuff."

"Yeah, well, I'll believe in that after I've seen the evidence."

Thomas sighs, "Okay, let's go."

"Where to?"

"To Gally and Aris' house. They might know what to do."

 

* * *

 

At the mansion, Gally and Aris were over the witch's magic vault. Aris was standing in front of the big table with several opened books on top of it; there were also vials and colorful jars on the table. There was a small cauldron just in front of him, and a purple bubbling potion inside the cauldron. Gally was sitting over one of the wooden stools that were over the room at a safe distance, watching carefully at the witch. Aris held up a small vial with a neon blue liquid and stared at it, looked at the potion and then back at the vial. Almost as if he weren't sure he should use that vial.

"Don't you need to read some recipe first?"

Aris snorts, "It's fine; alchemy is all about improvisation."

There's a knock over the front door and Gally turns his head to the door. He turns his head back and sees Aris looking at him, still holding the blue vial. Neither of them moved, but then the witch spoke,

"Aren't you gonna answer that? I'm kind of busy."

Gally rolls his eyes but does it anyways. He goes down the stairs and approaches the door; once he opens it, Thomas and the rest enter the house before he can even ask why they are there. He stays in the same place as they enter,

"Yeah, hello to you too. Do you want to come in?" he asks in a mock voice.

Thomas offers him a sheepish smile, "Sorry, but this is important." Gally closes the door and turns to them, "Why weren't you at school today?"

The tall sandy blond nods at the stairs, "Aris said he was going to make a new potion and I had to stay to make sure he didn't blow up the whole block. Why?"

"Someone's dead." Teresa says.

"And you came to tell me this because...?"

"It might be related to something supernatural." Thomas says. "Someone was murder last night, someone from school and we think it might be related to the supernatural. Well, Minho thinks so."

Gally nods to himself, "So... You came all the way here to tell me that you think the murder that happened last night might be related to something supernatural not because you have any kind of proof but because Minho thinks it might be supernatural?"

He says it in a tone that makes them realize that they may have overreacted.

Thomas shakes his head, "Hey, he's a seer. He can see... the future, which means something, right?"

Minho, smiling at his best friend, pats him on the back, "Thanks, man."

Thomas continues, "I mean, even if he doesn't know much about seers and their abilities or how to control his, he still said it had to be related. Although he didn't say he saw it on a vision; he just said it had to be supernatural related."

Minho gives him an offended look, "Thanks, man."

Gally intervenes, "Listen, it may not be related but just to be sure..." he sighs, "We're gonna investigate it. First, you have to know everything about the murder. Okay? Then, we can see if it is related to the supernatural. If it is supernatural we're taking care of it; if it's not, then we leave it to the authorities. You know, your godfather?"

Thomas nods, "Got it."

"Now if you excuse me," he turns around and goes upstairs. Probably to continue checking on Aris and that potion.

Once he's gone, Minho turns to his best friend, "What now?"

"We go to the sheriff's station and ask Vince about it."

"Do you think he will tell you?" asks Teresa.

"If I tell him we think it can be something supernatural, yeah. But we can't all go. Newt and I will go, you two stay here."

Minho and Teresa nod at him. Thomas turns to his boyfriend, who nods at him; they're about to walk to the door and open it to leave when they hear a big explosion coming from upstairs. Then they hear the angry voice of Gally shouting " _'Improvisation'_ my ass!"

 

* * *

 

As Minho and Teresa stayed at the mansion, Thomas and Newt went to the sheriff's station in search for Vince. They entered the station and were about to make their way to Vince's office when Thomas saw at the distance that the office was empty. Thomas looked around and approached a deputy that was sitting over his desk, checking some files.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but is Vince here? I need to talk to him."

The deputy didn't even raise his head as he answered, "Vince's not here at the moment. No, I don't know when he's coming back and no, you can't wait him over his office."

Thomas growls and turns back to Newt.

"Great. How are we going to know anything related to the case if Vince's not here?"

Newt shrugs. Just walking behind him at the distance, Thomas saw Alec looking through some photos as he made his way to Vince's empty office.

"Alec!" he yelled as the two teens approached the older brunet.

Alec stopped and turned to them with a smile, "Hey, guys. Sorry, it's been a crazy morning and I haven't had my coffee so..."

"No, no, it's okay! We get it." he looks at the photos over the other's hands, "Are those from the murder or this morning? Well, last night?"

Alec looks at his hands and back at them, "Yeah, that poor girl. Did you know her?"

"No, I didn't knew her-" Newt nudges him, "-I mean, I did! She was a good person, that Amanda-"

 _"Sandra."_ quietly corrects Newt.

"Sandra."

Alec looks between the two of them and for a moment Thomas thinks he's going to ask them to leave, but he doesn't. Instead, he does something else,

"...Okay. Can you both come with me so I can ask you some questions about her?"

"Sure."

As Alec turned to guide them to Vince's office, Thomas turned to the witch and gave him a thumbs up as they made their way to the office. The blond witch rolled his eyes but smiled either ways.

They entered the office and sat over the chairs while Alec sat over Vince's chair and lay face down the photos so they couldn't see them. Damn it.

Alec started talking, "So, how well did you know her?"

"I, uh, well..." Damnit, Thomas did not think this through. Luckily, Newt did.

"We shared a class. History." Newt said, "I... actually didn't spoke too much with her, but she was nice."

"Yeah, that's what everyone says."

"What happened?" asks Thomas. He means the murder.

Alec grimaces, "Come on, Thomas. You know I can't talk about a murder investigation with a civilian."

"I know, I know, I just..." he stops for a moment, "This seems surreal, you know? That a classmate is dead. Someone we knew."

Alec nods, agreeing with him. "I know it must be like that for you. Especially for her best friend Emma."

Thomas frowns, "Why's that-

He doesn't get to ask anything as a firm voice belonging to the sheriff comes from outside the office,

**_"Montgomery!"_ **

"Sorry. Work calls." he gets up from the chair and exits the office, half closing the door behind him as he walks to the sheriff.

Once alone at the office, the two teens get up from their chairs and go to take a look of the photos. They're from the crime scene -Sandra's house- but there's none of the actual crime scene, meaning the girl's room.

Thomas frowns, "This can't be all. Where's the rest?"

"Maybe at his computer." they turn on the screen and start searching through his files. While Newt checks on the computer, Thomas stays alert in case Alec comes back. "Here it is." Newt says once he finds the file. They open it and a lot of photos appear.

"Okay... I don't know how we are going to look through all those photos right now. Maybe I can take a photo so we can check them later, but my phone has low battery so I don't think-

Newt ignores him and makes a move with his wrist, appearing an USB flash drive and inserting it in the computer.

"What are you--

" _Shh!_ They'll hear us."

Thomas lowers his voice, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to copy the file and the photos so we can check them at Aris' house and not here."

"Nice."

Once it's done, he takes the flash drive out and puts the screen back in black. They go to the door when Alec opens it and they almost collide,

"Wow, careful!"

"Sorry, Alec. We were just leaving."

"Oh, already?"

"Yeah. Sorry we couldn't be of help."

"No, no, it's fine. Totally."

Thomas nods and together with Newt they run to the main door and exit the station. Alec goes back inside the office and goes to pick up the photos but he finds them laying facing up instead of down, like he laid them. He frowns and looks outside the office at the door where the two teens had just crossed.

 

* * *

 

Thomas and Newt went back to Aris' mansion with the flash drive. Once they arrived, they gave Teresa the flash drive -since she had brought her laptop with her- and she opened the file and started reading it. With Aris' laptop, they all watch the crime scene photos. These ones included Sandra's body over her bed, covered in blood and some others more. Thomas was standing behind Teresa, who was sitting over the dining table with the laptop in front of her.

"So this is all?" asks Thomas.

Teresa nods, "Yes, this is all."

Thomas separates from her behind and walks to the other side of the table, where Newt was. Aris was sitting beside Teresa when Thomas asked him,

"What do you say?"

"There's nothing abnormal in the crime scene. This doesn't seem supernatural to me."

"Me neither. And I'm not even a supernatural something." Teresa says.

Minho blinks a few times, clearly mad. " _'Nothing abnormal'_? Haven't you seen her?! She's lying on her bed, with her eyes still open and covered in blood! Some psycho wrote in the walls with her blood! Her blood!"

"Yes, I have eyes, thank you. And you said it yourself: _'some psycho'_. There's nothing abnormal, except the fact that they have written with her blood on the walls. There's nothing that indicates some supernatural element."

Minho huffs, turning around.

Gally, who was standing at the end of the table with his arms crossed over his chest, spoke,

"Okay. Is that enough proof for you, Thomas? Can we move on?"

"No, there's gotta be something else. I know it. I feel it." he starts thinking as Gally starts talking again.

"You can feel it? First Minho and now you? I told you that if this was a normal murder case we would leave it. I know you want to help, but-

"Emma." Thomas said out of the blue. They all turned to him.

"What?"

"Alec mentioned that name. He was saying that it must've been hard, especially for her best friend Emma."

"Of course it would be hard for her best friend. I would be devastated if you died." Minho said.

"Yeah, I know, but that's not it. The way he said it... It was like there was something else."

"I saw that name somewhere in here." Teresa says as she starts typing on her laptop. They all wait for her to speak again. "Here it is. Her best friend Emma Pointer was at Sandra's house in a sleepover when the murder happened."

"Did she saw anything?" asks Newt.

"It doesn't say."

"Okay. We have to find that Emma and talk to her." Thomas says decided.

"And ask what? _'Hey, before your friend was murdered did you saw anything strange, like someone flying and blowing fire from the mouth, or something hairy with claws'_?"

Thomas rolls his eyes at his best friend's sarcastic response. But whether he liked it or not, they would find out of the feeling he had in his guts lead them to something supernatural or not.

 

* * *

 

At the afternoon after Thomas and Newt left the sheriff' station, Alec and Agent Stark went to talk to Sandra's boyfriend, the supposedly last person to see her. Currently they were over the guy's living room, talking to him.

"Shouldn't I wait for my parents to arrive?" asks the boy. Poor guy, he looked nervous.

"You aren't under arrest, Connor." Alec says.

"But Sandra's best friend Emma says that you might be the last person to have seen her alive. Now, I need you to answer truthfully, okay?"

The guy nods.

"Did you go to Sandra's house last night?"

"Yes, I did."

"At what time?"

"Around, um, around 10 pm."

"And at what time did you left?"

"...."

Dick frowns and asks a little more forceful, "At what time did you left?"

"I-I don't know."

"At what time?"

 _"I don't know!"_ the guy yells, "I-I wasn't paying attention. I wanted to see her, and I knew that her parents weren't home so I went to see her. She told me Emma was with her and that I had to leave, but I just wanted to be with my girlfriend. W-We made out, she told me she would see me at school and then I left through her window. That's the last time I saw her." he looks into Dick's eyes, "I swear!"

"I believe you." the blond man says with a calm voice, "But we need to know all the details, okay?"

Connor nods, licking his lips, "I don't know at what time, but I wasn't there for more than 20 minutes. We made out and then we said goodbye."

Dick nods at the boy, "Thank you for your cooperation. And... I'm sorry for your loss."

They guy accompanies them to the entryway; they're about to leave for good but then Dick turns around to face Connor, "You said you left through her window, right? Was her window open when you arrived?"

"No. Sandra always kept her windows closed at night; she said she got cold at night if she left it open even a little."

"Did she close it after you left?"

Connor seems to think about it and looks at Dick, "No."

Dick nods at him, thanking him. After they exit the house, Dick went to take his car keys out,

"Are you busy right now?" he asks Alec.

"Not actually. Why?"

"We're gonna have to go and talk to Emma Pointer, she might have seen something that she doesn't remember."

 

* * *

 

Thomas took Aris with him this time, and the two of them went to Emma's house -once they found her address. Standing outside the house, Thomas notices that there were no cars in the front so that meant that Emma was alone. Good, he didn't know what they would've done if her parents where there.

He brings his hand to the door and knocks, "Emma?" he waits for an answer but none come. He looks at Aris and knocks again, "Emma? Hey, it's Thomas Hawthorne from school. Are you there?"

He knows she's there. He can hear her heartbeat through the door. Which meant that she was probably at the other side of the door.

"Hey. Listen, I know your parents aren't here right now, and I know they must've told you not to talk to anyone, but we're not here to harm you. We're here to help." he turns to Aris, nodding at the witch, "Listen, we want to talk about Sandra. I know this must be a tough topic but you will realize you'll feel better talking it out."

He finishes talking and they wait for her to do something, to say something; anything. They hear the sound of the lock being put.

As the brunet groans Aris turns to him, "Nice. Shall we try it again?"

Thomas ignores him and knocks again.

"Emma, I know how you must feel-" he shut up for a moment and shakes his head, starting again, "Actually, I don't know what you're going through. I've never lost anyone, except for my turtle Donatello when I was 7 years old but that's different-

"And how is that supposed to make her feel at ease?" Aris stops and frowns after he processed what Thomas just said, "Did you really named your turtle _'Donatello'_?"

"I was 7 years old, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were my jam!" defends himself Thomas.

Aris rolls his eyes and Thomas really tries not to glow his eyes at him at this moment, but then they hear the lock coming off and moments later the door opens a little, enough for half of Emma's face to show,

"Was your turtle really named Donatello?" she asks in a little voice.

Thomas nods, "Yeah."

Emma seems to wait for a moment before she says "Mine was named Raphael." and opens the door completely for them to enter. Not waiting any more, Thomas and Aris enter the house.

Once inside, Thomas can perfectly get the sad smell coming off from the redhead girl. It stinks the whole living room, and probably the whole house. Taking a look at Emma, he sees that the girl is wearing long sleeved Sailor Moon pajamas and is holding a navy blanket around her body. Her hair is disheveled and her face is red and puffy, as well as her eyes. She's being crying. There are still traces of tears over her cheeks.

She doesn't say anything, she just motions them to follow her upstairs and that's what they do. They follow her to her room and once they enter they know why she's wearing long sleeved pajamas. Her AC is turned on and her room is cold. Not a nasty 'I'm gonna get pneumonia if I sleep in this cold' cold, but a nice cold.

Emma goes to sit on her bed, back leaning against the headboard and brings the blanket around herself closer. Thomas and Aris stay standing near the bed, not really sure if they should sit over her bed or what.

"Thank you for coming." it's the first thing Emma says, "No one has actually come."

"Really?"

"Well, they left flowers on my doorstep but no one has actually spoken to me. Not even my parents." she snorts, "They went to buy me some ice cream."

"Maybe they want to give you some space." Aris says.

Emma nods, looking down at her hands tugging her sleeves. "You said you wanted to help. How come?"

Thomas shares a look with Aris, "We, uh, we wanted to help with the investigation."

"But I've already talk to the police. I told them everything I know."

"We know. But you see, sometimes we think we've said it all, but it turns out we still had some information. Luckily, we brought something that might help."

After he finished saying that, Aris took out of his satchel a small bottle and showed it to Emma.

"I don't drink alcohol." she said.

"Umm, I didn't know that was an option. No, this will help with your memory. It's a beverage that helps you get information you didn't even know you had. It's kind of like magic." he says with a smile.

"You really believe in that?"

"Oh, honey, you have no idea."

At the confused look Emma has on her face, Thomas steps in, "Eh, what he means is that it works like magic. Will you be willing to try it?

"Will it hurt me?"

"No, not at all. We wouldn't ask you anything that would harm you."

Emma seems to think about it for almost a minute and nods. Aris gives her the bottle. She takes the lid off and after taking some air she drinks the bottle. Once it's empty she gives the bottle back to Aris, who keeps it away in his satchel. He goes to stand beside Emma on the bed.

"Okay, now hold still and don't open your eyes."

"Why?"

"Just trust me. You'll get dizzy."

Emma doesn't questions again; she closes her eyes. Aris puts his hands to hover over Emma's head and green flames appear surrounding his hands. They then disappear.

"Okay, now I'm going to ask you to go over the events of last night. When you last saw Sandra, okay?"

Emma nods.

Thomas watches as something in front of the bed near where he was standing starts to take form. At first it appears of some cyan color but then it does takes form and it was like watching a projection. They were Emma's memory from last night.

Still with her eyes closed, the redhead smiles, "Hey, I _do_ feel something."

"I told you. And it doesn't feel bad, right?"

"Not at all."

"Good. Now, I need you to focus. What were you and Sandra doing?"

Over the projection, it shows Emma and Sandra over the latter's bedroom; they were sitting each over one bed and were watching as the moving began. The Princess Bride. They were smiling and eating the popcorn on their laps. Thomas smiles at that.

"We had a sleepover. We used to have them when we were little and after we started highschool it got difficult, but whenever we could we would do it."

"Ok. Now, what else?"

"After the last movie ended, I went to take a shower. We had classes, so..."

The projection shows Emma getting up from bed and walking to the boudoir where her towel and clothes are. She was about to go to the bathroom inside the room when Sandra stops her.

"I was going to use her shower but she said that hers didn't have hot water. That I should use the one at the end of the hall."

Projection Emma rolls her eyes but smiles at her friend and exits the room.

"That's the last time I actually saw Sandra."

Thomas looks at Aris, who grimaces but continues.

"Okay. You went to shower and then you came back, right?"

"Yes."

"What happened when you came back to the room?"

The projection changes into Emma, showered and fully dressed, walking back to the room. She opens the door and finds the room in darkness.

"I thought that maybe she had gone to sleep, but when I was going to turn on the light I heard a sound."

The Emma projection stops her hand over the light switch.

"What was it?" asks Thomas.

"At that moment it sounded like a muffled moan."

" _'At that moment'_? What does it sound like now?" ask Aris.

Emma shakes her head, "I don't know. I just heard that sound, it was dark and there was some rustling over her bed and I thought she had company."

"Company?"

"Her boyfriend Connor. He had come once when we were having a sleepover. I-I thought it was the same thing and I didn't wanted to bother them, so I didn't turned on the light."

In the projection, Emma covers her eyes as she walks to her bed and sits on it. She grabs her phone and earphones and plugs them on.

There were tears going down Emma's cheeks but she didn't open her eyes, "Last time I did the same: I put my earphones on and slept with the music on."

"You didn't see anything."

"No, I already told you that. If I had suspected that something was off I would've turned on the light!"

"Okay, let's go back. Back when you were showering. Did you heard something

"I was on the shower at the end of the hall! I would've had to be a dog to hear anything from that distance!"

Thomas knows she is right.

Aris continues, "Ok. I didn't mean it like that. What I meant was that sometimes we hear or see something but we think that we've imagined it. Now, did you heard anything weird? Out of the normal? Something that made you at least turn your head to another direction?"

Emma frowns, eyes still closed. "I... I don't... Well, there was this time. I didn't hear anything but... I got a feeling."

Thomas takes a step closer, "A feeling? Like what?"

"Like... someone was in the house." she stops for a moment, "And a part of me thought I was crazy so I kept showering."

"Okay. Okay, that's good. Did you tell that to the cops?"

"No."

"Let's go back to the room, Emma. When you came back to the room after showering, it was dark, right?"

Thomas turns around to the projection and watches as it morphs into Emma opening the door and finding the room in complete darkness. The girl moves to turn on the light but hears a sound and doesn't turn it on. She covers her eyes and makes her way to her bed. She sits on the bed and goes to grab her earphones.

"What is that?"

Thomas turns at hearing Emma's voice and finds her with her eyes open, looking at the projection. He panics and looks at Aris.

"How can I see that? What is-

"I told you not to open your eyes! You're gonna get dizzy!"

Aris appears a blindfold over her eyes.

"Focus, Emma. Did you felt anything while entering the room?"

"Feel?"

"Maybe you thought that her boyfriend was there, so that's why you covered your eyes." Thomas says, "But it also means that you had your head turned to the front before you went to turn on the light. You saw the shadows, her bed, your bed, but mostly you were watching her bed, right?"

"Yes."

"You sure there wasn't anything off?"

Emma's face contorted with confusion, "No. No, there wasn't."

Thomas and Aris look at each other; the brunet werewolf nods at him and the witch wriggles his hands and the projection ends. He removes the blindfold and lets the girl blink a few times.

"Wow. Did you see that? That... thing, with the colors and- it seemed to be my face."

Aris shakes his head, sitting over the edge of the bed, "No, sorry."

Thomas goes to the other side of the bed, near the window, "Emma, how are you feeling?"

"Fine. I mean, obviously not _'fine'_ , but fine in the category of I don't feel dizzy." she looks at her lap, "Sorry I couldn't be of help."

"No, it's okay. Whatever you could tell us helps. Did you do anything different before going to Sandra's house?"

Emma stays still, thinking about it. "We went to the carnival. It seemed fun and Sandra wanted to go."

Thomas hears a car's engine and frowns, turning to the window and peeking outside. He saw a black car parked in front of Emma's house and then saw as Agent Stark and Alec climb out. Shit.

"Nothing else? You sure?"

"Yeah, that's all. I should probably tell the cops that, right?"

"If you want to."

Thomas approaches Aris over the bed, "Yeah, if you want to. Umm, we gotta go. Now."

Aris nods at him, understanding his voice tone. The witch gets up from bed and stands beside Thomas, who turns to the redhead on the bed,

"Don't tell the cops that we were here." Emma frowns, "I know that sounds criminal but it's because they will lose time in asking what we were doing here than actually investigating Sandra's murder."

"Okay." the girl says.

The two guys turn to leave the room,

"Thomas!" the brunet werewolf stops and turns to the girl who is now standing up, "I know that your godfather is... a sheriff's deputy. I was wondering if you could get me Sandra's anklet. They say they didn't found it while searching her room, but she never took it off. I gave her that for her eighth birthday. It's a golden string with flowers -daisies. Her favorites."

"I'll see what I can do."

The redhead smiles, "Thank you."

Thomas nods back and exits the room, meeting Aris in the hallway as the witch grabs his hand and Disapparates them out of the house and back to the mansion just as the doorbell rang.

They Apparate at the mansion's living room where the rest of the pack is, waiting for them. They all look at them, wanting to know what happened.

"We're gonna have to go to the carnival." it's the first thing that Thomas said.

"Yay!"

"Not for fun, Minho."

"Ow."

 

* * *

 

The sun was coming down the pack went to the carnival. As they were walking through the mass of people, they started asking about what happened at Emma's house.

"So, what did she said?" asked Teresa.

Thomas answers, "Apparently she didn't see anything. She thought her boyfriend was over and wanted to give them some privacy, so she didn't turn on the lights and went to bed."

"That's why the message on the walls." Newt says. Thomas nods.

"Did she actually open the door to you?" asks Minho surprised.

Aris rolls his eyes, "Thomas only had to say that his turtle's name was Donatello and the girl turned out to had one named Raphael and they clicked."

Teresa looks at Thomas, "That's why she let you two in?"

"Reverse Darwinism: survival of the most idiotic." Gally says.

"But it worked! And that's why we're here."

"We're here because she said that she and Sandra came here before going to her house and spending the night there." Aris says.

Crossing his arms, Gally asks "And what do you expect to find?"

"I don't know yet. Something, anything."

They all stop when Thomas abruptly stops in the middle of their way.

"What is it?" asks Minho.

"I thought I smelled... blood."

"Wait, you're serious?" Minho looks around, "That must be it." he says pointing at a guy holding his bloodied hand with a handkerchief around it.

"No, that's not it." he turns his head around, "There's... something weird."

"Thomas, this is a carnival. Okay? Everything's a little weird here."

But the werewolf continues to look around the place. It was like watching a dog sniffing around when you took him out for a walk. As he did that, Minho looks around and finds the signboard with neon lights that said **'Whishing Star'** and remembers the girl he met yesterday. The one with flaming hair. He sees a line of people, waiting to come inside. Huh. That attraction must be popular.

Thomas lets out a sigh in defeat, "This is useless. There are too many people in here, too many odors and sounds."

"Also you didn't exactly know what you were looking." adds Gally.

"That too."

"So what now?" asks Newt.

Teresa raises her hand a little, like if asking a question in class, "Would it be weird if we stayed in the carnival after what happened?"

"....No, I don't think so. Min?" Thomas turns to his best friend.

"It's not like she got murdered here."

"Yeah."

Thomas nods, now that they're all agreed. "Okay. You can go ahead, I need to do something first. Aris, can you come with me?"

"Sure."

Thomas looks at Newt and nods at him. The blond witch nods back and he accompanies the others to go to the attractions. Thomas and Aris exit the carnival and they Disapparate from there and Apparate at the sheriff's station. Aris stay out while Thomas goes in and looks for Vince, who luckily was there, talking to some deputy as he was about to enter his office.

"Vince!"

The older man looked up as the brunet approached him. The deputy finished talking to him and turned back to his work.

"Hey, kid. How's it going?"

"Oh, well, you know. Normal." they entered his office, "Well, as normal as it can get while being a werewolf." he chuckled.

Vince raised an eyebrow but offered him an amused smile. Thomas takes a look at his behind and gets closer to the desk,

"Listen, I know this might sound weird and I know you can't share anything from the case but you wouldn't have found her anklet?"

"Her what?"

"Her anklet. She always wore one. It was golden and had daisies on it."

"You sure knew her well." Thomas shrugs. Vince moves to open the file that was on top of his desk and looks through the pages, "Her best friend Emma asked the same question, but we didn't find that anklet anywhere." he looks up at Thomas, "Why did you ask about it?"

Thomas scratches the back of his head, "Um, Emma asked me if they found it. She knows you work at the sheriff's station, so..."

Vince nods, "Well, she must've lost it before coming back to her house. Her parents will arrive tomorrow at 6 am, so maybe I can ask them about it, but there's no guarantee we'll find it, yeah?"

Thomas nods, understanding. He turns around to leave when Vince's voice stops him,

"Thomas."

The brunet turns around to look at his godfather.

"Be careful."

Thomas nods once more and then proceeds to leave the office. He exited the sheriff's station and together with Aris they left to the carnival.

 

* * *

 

At night the carnival was closing for today. The games and attractions were being closed and turned off. The ringmaster Mr. Black was at the entrance of the carnival, saying goodbye to the people leaving the carnival,

"Have a good night! I hope you enjoyed it!" he said with a smile. The people smiled back and thanked him too. "Come back tomorrow!"

Once there were no more people that weren't working at the carnival, Mr. Black turned to a figure hiding in the shadows and nodded at them, acknowledging them. The figure nodded back and watched as the ringmaster walked to the other side. The figure turned around on their heels and went to a different direction, something golden with daisies peeking out from their pockets and shining with the moonlight.

 


	3. Carnival of Lost Souls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! The third chapter of this season! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did while writing it~

Early in the morning Minho was over his bedroom, sitting on his bed with his back leaning against the bedboard as he read the book Gally's mom gave him -the one with oracles and seers. He's so immersed in the reading that he doesn't hear his name being called until someone knocks at his door and then proceeds to open, revealing his mom. She peeks inside the room with a smile as she opens the door but not entering the room quite yet.

"Hi, honey. You gonna go downstairs and have some breakfast?"

"In a moment, mom."

Nadeshiko smiles at her son and then notices the book over his lap and curiosity has he for a moment as she says

"I'm surprised to see you reading a book when there are no classes."

Minho looks up from the book, "Um, yeah. It's a book I really need to read." he doesn't specify if it's for school or not. His mom seems to notice, as she drops the topic. God bless her.

"Breakfast. 5 minutes." she says as Minho nods at her. She smiles once more at him and then closes the door, going downstairs.

Once she's gone, Minho looks down at the book on his hands and stares at the page where it's opened that says **"Premonitions"**.

 

* * *

 

At the sheriff's station Vince was over his office going through some files when he sighed and sat back, leaving the files alone for a moment. He was tired. Why? Because Sandra Ellison's parents had come an hour ago and it had been horrible to watch the mother crying while the husband held her, and he tried not to crumble too. They came to answer some questions and then left to the morgue to see their daughter. He can't relate to that pain. He puts a hand over his eyes and presses hard. God, a headache was coming.

From the outside Alec could see Vince and he wondered if he was okay. He looked pained and tired. He turned to the sheriff, who was standing beside the desk the brunet scientist was sitting on.

"Do you think he's fine?"

Without looking from the file on his hand he answers "In this business you gotta learn that some days are just hard, Montgomery. That's the way it is."

Alec grimaces. A male deputy approaches the sheriff and asks him to sign over something and as the sheriff does the deputy turns to Alec to give him a nod, acknowledging him. He looks back when he sees a skin colored patch over his neck; he points at it,

"Hey, what is that? Are you covering a hickey or something like that?"

Alec puts a hand over his neck and covering the patch, "What? No! No, it's a nicotine patch."

"I didn't know you smoked."

"I don't." he frowns at his own words and starts rambling, "I mean, I used to, but I'm trying to quit it. Actually I didn't like it at all, and that's weird because then how did I started smoking if I didn't even like it and-

"Montgomery." calls the sheriff.

"Yes, sir?"

"Shut the hell up."

"Okay, sir."

In that moment Dick appeared and approached the sheriff and Alec, straightening his suit.

"Anything new about the Ellison's murder case?" he asked.

The sheriff puts the file he was reading down, "No. The parents don't know anything about it and there are no more clues." he look at something behind Dick and clears his throat, "Excuse me,"

Dick and Alec watch him leave. Once Dick turns to him, the scientist tilts his head, eyes studying him,

"Aren't you tired of wearing suits?" he asks the blond man.

"How come?"

"It's just... I thought you would've use jeans or something. No need to wear a suit."

"I supposed that comes from someone that lounges around his house in his Spiderman underwear?"

"How did you know I own Spiderman underwear?"

"I didn't." he says grinning.

Alec contorts his face to show that he's offended and grabs the file that the sheriff had been writing and hits Dick with it. He gets up and huffing leaves as the blond man chuckles and watches him leave too.

 

* * *

 

At Gally and Aris' mansion, the two witches were over Aris' vault, practicing their magic. Well, Newt's magic. Aris was standing on a corner while Newt was standing in the middle of the room, the table gone for the moment as they didn't needed it. And in front of Newt was a metal stool.

Aris started talking, "Ok, now concentrate. Focus all your attention on making this object invisible."

"It is harder than it sounds, you know."

"It took me a week to learn that. You've been at it for almost three!"

"I'm sorry, okay! I'm not some genius at magical learning!"

"First of all... thanks for the genius part! Second," he sighs, "you can do it, okay? It doesn't matter if it takes you a year, let's hope no, to learn how. But the point is that you can do it."

Newt nods. He knows he can do it. He's been doing it pretty well according to Aris and his mom. He breathes in deeply, closing his eyes for a moment. He holds his hands forward to the stool and concentrates. His eyes are glued to the stool and he tries to do it the way Aris told him. The lighter brunet witch stares between the stool and Newt. Suddenly, one of the four legs of the stool starts vanishing and Newt wants to smile at that but knows that if he does it, it will break his concentration. He continues and the stool starts disappearing until there's nothing standing in front of Newt. He keeps his hands to the front as he turns with a smile to Aris, who nods proudly, but the moment doesn't lasts long when Gally peeks inside the room and clears his throat to say

"Thomas is here."

At the mention of his boyfriend's name, Newt stops focusing on the stool and soon the invisibility spell dissolves, leaving the stool naked to the common eye. Aris groans at that,

"Typical. Just typical! They think with their other head."

Newt ignores him and leaves the room, walking through the hallway and going downstairs to where Thomas is waiting for him. The brunet turns around as Newt walks towards him, smiling,

"Hey, you."

"Hey. Did I interrupt something?" he asks looking at the stairs. He heard Aris curse his name and he doesn't know why.

"I was trying to make a stool invisible."

"Cool. Did you?"

"Almost."

Thomas realizes. "I interrupted you, right."

"You are correct."

Thomas groans. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."

"It's okay, Tommy."

Thomas brings the blond witch closer, his hands staying on his hips and at that Newt brings both arms over his shoulder until his hands are playing with the back of Thomas' head,

"I like it when you call me _'Tommy'_."

Newt smiles, "Really?"

The brunet hums in agreement.

"What else do you like?" asks the blond as he leans closer, making Thomas growl at that.

 _"Do they realize that this is not a hotel, right? This is private property and they shouldn't be about to have sex."_ comes Aris' voice from upstairs, clearly talking to Gally.

"We can hear you!" yells Thomas.

_"I know!"_

Newt laughs at that as Thomas sends daggers at the stairs, but they don't separate from where they are and how they are.

 

* * *

 

A couple of hours later at Minho's house, the Asian male was over his bedroom still reading the book. It was amazing that he hadn't let go of the book since the morning. But the book had so many things that he couldn't just stop after a section ended. He turned over the next page when his mom's voice coming from downstairs stopped him,

_"Minho, it's time to do your chores!"_

"In a moment, mom!"

_"Now, Minho!"_

"But ma, I-"

They both start arguing: him asking for a couple of minutes more and his mom telling him to come downstairs now, without an exception. Minho knows it's better if he doesn't fight, so grunting he gets up from bed and exits his room. He goes downstairs and goes directly to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Over his room, the book stays opened over his bed in the new section that read **"Seers"**. Minho had finally reached that part.

 

* * *

 

Hours went by and soon the afternoon sky was illuminating the streets of Beacon Hills. Vince was still working at the station and Mary had the day off, so she stayed home relaxing. Thomas and Newt were still over Aris' mansion. The blond witch continued his training with Thomas watching. He was fascinated at seeing Newt doing magic and how he smiled when something worked out just fine. Gally was doing some work out on the backyard. Over his house, Minho is taking care of his little sister Kira while his parents are out. They were over the kitchen table and he was watching over her as she made homework.

"Is that right?" she asks as she shows him her paper.

Minho grabs the paper and starts reading it but soon returns it to Kira, "How should I know? I'm just making you study."

The doorbell rings. Minho tells his sister to continue and that he'll be right back as he gets up from the chair and makes his way to the doorway; he opens the door to find Teresa standing on the other side. The girl smiles at him and Minho smiles back,

"Hey, what's up?"

"Do you want to go to the carnival with me? My mom's at a date, and I didn't wanted to be alone at my house."

"Sure, I--" he remembers Kira at the kitchen, "-I can't."

Teresa deflates at that, looking down at her hands, "Oh. Okay."

"No, it's not like that. I, uh, my parents aren't home and I'm taking care of my sister, so I can't go out."

Teresa shrugs, "Why doesn't she come with us?"

Minho blinks a few times, "...That is a brilliant idea. How come I didn't think about it?"

"Because I'm the one with the good ideas?" she says biting back a grin.

Minho grins, raising both eyebrows, "Really? And what am I?"

"The pretty face."

"Oh~"

"Aha,"

They both laugh. Minho nods at her,

"Just give me a sec," and he runs back to the kitchen. Kira is still there, writing on the paper. Minho stands beside her, "Hey, kid, do you want to go to the carnival?"

"Are you kidding? I've been waiting for mom to take me since it arrived!"

Minho grins, "Well, then, go grab your coat."

As she goes to grab her coat from the coat rack, Minho grabs his cellphone from the table and the house keys and walks back to the door where Teresa and Kira are waiting.

"Okay, let's go!"

Kira cheers excitedly as Minho closes the door and the three of them walk to Teresa's car.

 

* * *

 

They arrived at the carnival and Kira's eyes were lit up with so much joy that she couldn't hide it. She started tugging at Minho's arm,

"Can we go to the carousel?"

"Sure."

"No, wait! The Tilt-A-Whirl! No, the Mirror Maze! The Ferris wheel! No, wait, the-

Teresa smiling kneeled beside the girl, "Calm down, Kira. We can get on all of those."

"Really?"

"Yeah, just stop tugging at your brother's arms before it plucks out of place."

"Oh!" she let go of Minho's arm. "Let's go!" and instead she grabs Teresa's hand and pulls her towards the games. Minho follows after them.

Three mechanical attractions and cotton candy later and Kira still had energy. She was finishing her candy cotton and wanted to climb on the Tilt-A-Whirl again.

"You're going to throw up your cotton candy." said Minho.

Kira pouted, "I will not!"

"Your brother's right," said Teresa beside her, "Why don't we go to one of those games and wait a little so you can go to the Tilt-A-Whirl again without throwing up?"

Kira nodded, agreeing with the raven girl. Teresa smiles, gives Minho a look, and takes the kid to the game that had a big board on top that read **'KNOCK'EM DOWN'**. It had some pyramids of cans and the goal was to try and knock them all. It seemed simple but it could be harder than it looked.

A hand fell on his shoulder and startled him for a moment until he turned around and saw who it belong to.

"Sorry," said Thomas as he took his hand away.

"No, I was distracted, that's all."

"What are you doing here?"

Minho points at behind his back, "I came with Kira and Teresa. You?"

In that moment Newt came from behind Thomas, holding a cotton candy and a soda on the other hand.

"Oh, I see how it is. Hey."

Newt nodded, "Hi."

"Another date?" asked Minho to his best friend.

"Uh, I don't think so."

"Why's that?"

"Because you don't bring other friends along to your dates." he said pointing to where Gally and Aris were. The sandy blond guy is holding a toy rifle and is successfully shooting down the ducks on the game they are playing. He won and the man gave him his prize. Aris noticed them and he pulled Gally to them.

"Hey! You're here too."

"Yeah, came with Teresa and my little sister." he turns to Gally, "What did you won?"

Gally holds his hand out to show them a light blue bead bracelet. He then turns holding it for Aris, who holds his hand out and lets the bracelet being laid on his hand, "Here,"

"Aww, you're giving it to me? The prize you won?"

"I don't want it."

"I feel so loved." he says as he fastens it around his left hand -the one that didn't had the cuff- and shows it to them.

"Nice,"

"Hey!" they turn and see Teresa and Kira behind them, the little girl holding a small pink hippo. Teresa smiles, pointing at Thomas, "You're-

"Here too? Yeah, tell me about it."

"So what do we do now that we're all together?" asks Newt.

Kira holds her free hand up and asks, "Can we go to the Tilt-A-Whirl?"

Minho and Teresa laugh at that. The others agree and start walking towards where the attraction is. As they walk, Minho sees the signboard with neon lights that said **'Whishing Star'** and stops for a moment. Teresa seems to notice as she too stops. Minho turns to her,

"Hey, can you take care of Kira for just a minute? I need to do something."

"Sure,"

"Thanks." and with that he left and Teresa went back to the group. Minho made his way towards the big tent and stood in front of the man guarding the entrance.

He paid and entered the tent. Looking around, he started walking towards white light coming from the end of the hall -just like last time- and once he got closer he saw the cellar with the shining signboard on top. The same girl with hair like fire was there, wearing the same long lilac dress. Maybe it was her attire or something. Minho got closer to the cellar and noticed that the girl was looking at the nothing, not having noticed his presence,

"Hey," he called.

"What do you wish- Oh, hi." her face seemed to change once she saw it was him. Or maybe he was imagining it? No, definitely she seemed more relaxed.

"Hi." they stayed like that for almost 10 seconds when Minho realized he should probably say something. "Um, how are you?"

"Good. You?"

"Fine. Having fun at the carnival." he doesn't notice the way her smile falls. He looks around at the tent, "Good Lord. It must be great to work at a carnival."

"I don't work here." came a soft reply.

Minho frowned and wanted to ask what she meant with that when the girl speaks again, interrupting him,

"So? Did you came here to finally have your wish?"

"Uh? Oh, no. No, I didn't come for that."

"Oh."

"I came to see how you were. I know it sounds weird but-

"No! It's actually cute from your part...." she lets it hang up in the air and Minho frowns for a moment when suddenly he realizes he hasn't said his name at all.

"Oh, shoot! Sorry! My name's Minho. Minho Lee. What's your name?"

"Sonya Minai Lekarariba-Laminai-Tchai Ekbat De Sebat."

Minho stays in his place, not even blinking. "Good. That's... that whole thing's your name, huh?" he whistles, impressed. He chuckles, "Do you have, uh... a shorter name?"

The girl offers him a smile, "Sonya."

Minho looks at her and smiles too, "Sonya." he nods, "That's a pretty name. Much better than _'Minho'_ , to be completely honest." the girl chuckles too.

A red light glows at one side of the cage.

Minho stares at it, "I guess that means I can't stay any longer."

"You're correct. That light means that the next person is coming."

Minho kicks the ground, "Okay. I guess I'll see you later."

"...Yeah."

Minho waves at her as he goes to the other side of the hall. The girl- Sonya, moves to the cellar door to wave back and this time Minho is sure he heard something metallic moving as he left.

Minho gets out of the tent and tries to localize his friends. He remembers they must be at the game his sister wanted, so he walks towards the Tilt-A-Whirl. He found them waiting on the line to get in the attraction, just two persons before them. He walked towards them, and Teresa spotted him.

"Hey. Did you do what you needed?"

"Yeah, I just thought I saw someone I knew but they weren't."

Teresa nods. Her eyes move behind him and they lit up; soon she's tugging at Aris' arm and pointing at something behind Minho, "Look! There!"

They all turned to look at the henna tattoos stand that Teresa was pointing.

"I wanna get one! What about you?" she asks Aris.

"We were just talking about it, of course I want one too!" he turns to Gally, "What do you say?"

"I already have one."

"I know, but wouldn't you want to have another one?"

"No, thanks."

"This one is not like the one you have permanently on your arm."

"I'm still gonna pass."

"Party pooper." he turns to Minho, "What about you, pretty boy?"

"I think I'm with Gally."

Aris rolls his eyes. He and Teresa get out of the line and run towards the tattoos stand. Minho turns to see Kira excited as she was about to pass the line. He looks at Gally,

"Hey, man, can you do me a favor? I don't really want to get in that thing. Feeling kind of dizzy," he lied, "But my sister wants to, so-

"I'll go with her."

Minho smiles, "Sweet!" he goes to Thomas and grabs him by the hand, "Come on, let's go to another game!"

"But I was- Okay." he goes along with his friend, Newt behind them, leaving Gally and Kira.

Minho leads them to the high striker or strength tester. He pays to the lady standing over the tester and she smiles at them. Minho grabs the mallet, takes a deep breath and lets the mallet fall over the padding and watch the puck go up, though it barely gets to the middle before it falls back down. The Asian male turns to the other two and shrugs like saying _'I did my best'_.

Next is Thomas' turn. Thomas passes Minho, who pats him on the back, wishing him luck, and goes to stand beside Newt. Thomas grabs the mallet and takes a step back, looking at the bell suspended on top of the tower. Gripping the mallet he decides to add a little of his werewolf strength; he raises the mallet and lets it fall over the rubber padding below and watches the puck go all the way up and reach the bell on the top. As the lady applauds at him, clearly impressed that someone -specially a teenager- could hit it and make it to the top.

Thomas turns around with a smile and sees his best friend looking at with a frown.

"What?"

Minho raises both eyebrows at him like saying _'really?'_. He knows.

"Come on-

"Cheater."

"Min-

 _"CHEATER!"_ he yells over his shoulder as he turns around, acting clearly offended and walking away. Thomas accepts the prize -a big panda plush- and runs after his friend while chuckling. He doesn't notice nor feels someone looking at him, watching him walk away from the game.

They find Teresa and Aris in their way, who show them their tattoos. Teresa tattooed a latin phrase that said **'amor vincit omnia'** which means _'love conquers all'_ on her inner wrist. Aris tattooed a small sun, moon, and a key over his hipbone.

"And what does that mean?" asks Thomas.

"The sun, the moon, and the truth." answers Aris, still showing them his tattoo.

They all frown in confusion but Gally appears with Kira and is the only one that knows what it means as he says "Three things cannot long be hidden. It's Buddhist."

Aris nods.

Minho whistles, "Wow. You in latin and you something Buddhist. I feel like a total loser since I wanted to have a panther or something tattooed."

They all laugh at that.

"Where to now?" asks Teresa, looking happily at her tattoo.

Newt, grabbing Thomas' hand, says "Well, I don't know you but we're going somewhere else first. Now, if you excuse us," and pulls his boyfriend along with him.

The rest of the pack watches them leave and almost a minute later Teresa asks,

"Are they going to go make out in some game?"

"Possibly." says Minho.

Newt and Thomas stop once they reach where the blond took them.

"So this is where you wanted to take me, huh?"

Thomas stares at the photo booth in front of them. It looks pretty big, enough for more than two to enter.

"Yes. Is it silly because I wanted to have a photo of everyone, but we can have that one on another time, but what I really wanted is a photo with you."

"No, no! Not at all!"

Newt smiles.

Thomas and Newt get inside the photo booth and sit; Thomas sits with his right side touching the wall and Newt beside the curtain/entrance. They pay and soon that screen tells them that the first of four photos will start soon. Both of them are looking at the front smiling when the first shot happens. For the next one they pose with Thomas showing his teeth -human ones- and growling and both of them holding their hands up to their head's sides and making them look like claws. The second shot happens and Newt turns with a blinding smile to Thomas and they kiss. Newt's hand cupping his neck and with both of them opening their eyes and looking at the camera when the third shot happens. They separate and as soon as they do, the blond witch turns to his side, cups Thomas' face and kisses his cheek with eyes closed, making Thomas close his eyes too and smile. The fourth and last shot happens. The machine prints the photos and once it's done, Newt picks up the printed photos but a frown appears over his face as he looks at them. None of them come out very well due to Thomas' reflective werewolf eyes. The flash makes his werewolf eyes glow. All of the photos are the same except the last one, where he's kissing Thomas on the cheek and the brunet has his eyes closed.

Thomas, noticing the way Newt is looking at the photos, grabs them and rips the good one off the strip and hands it to Newt, who smiles at him.

One of the best nights so far.

 

* * *

 

The sun was down when Thomas came back from the carnival holding a big polar bear plush and went to the kitchen where Mary was. She smiled once she saw him and she smiled brighter when he held the plush for her,

"For you."

She accepts it, "Aww, thank you! It's so fluffy!" she puts it over her lap and looks at him, "Did you had fun?"

"Yeah. It was a pretty good day."

As Mary goes to the fridge and opens it, taking the juice jar out, Thomas clears his throat.

"So, listen, I was talking with Minho and between small chattering he said that I should stay at his house. You know, like a sleepover? So I was gonna as if I could stay at Minho's."

"And are his parents-

"Okay with it? You know they always are."

Mary nods at him, "Okay. You're leaving now?"

Thomas nods and points at the stairs, "Yeah, I'll just get my stuff and be out."

With that Thomas went upstairs to get his stuff ready. Mary stayed downstairs and smiled at the polar bear plush.

 

* * *

 

Okay. He lied to Mary. Big deal. She and Vince lied to him about being a werewolf. Well, technically they didn't _'lied'_ ; they just kept the truth from him. But what's that thing that Minho says? Omission is treason. Anyways, he told Mary that he was going to go to Minho's house when actually-

"Do you wanna take a shower or did you took one before coming?" asked Newt.

"I'll take one here, if you don't mind."

He's at Newt's house. His mom and grandma aren't home, so they have the house for themselves. No. They aren't going to do anything... almost. He takes the towel Newt offers him, his pajama and exits the blond's room, walking towards the bathroom.

Once he's done, he comes back to the witch's room wearing a black cotton shirt and red & black plaid pajama shorts. He's toweling his hair when he notices that Newt changed into his own pajama: a dark navy long sleeved shirt and drawstring pants with white stars on it.

Newt smiles at him, "So? Wanna watch a movie?"

"Sure," Thomas smiles back.

Well, even if they don't _'do anything'_ he'll be happy just literally sleeping with Newt. He'll always be.

 

* * *

 

A couple of hours later at night over Thomas' house, Mary was walking into her room in her pajamas, having finished dinner. She went over the chair beside her boudoir and grabbed her sleeping robe; she puts it on and then exits the room and walks towards Thomas' bedroom. She opens the door and turns on the light. Everything seems normal. She turns off the light and closes the door behind her as she walks through the hall and goes back to her room. She moves towards the nightstand and starts looking for something, roaming through the insides of the nightstand. Moving her hand to the right she finds a box of matches and holds it up to see it clear. This is not hers. And Vince's supposed to quit smoking.

_'This man, I swear.'_

She puts the matches inside the pocket of her robe and hears a crashing noise that startles her and immediately goes downstairs to check. It should be silly to go and look out for a strange noise when you're alone, but she's not a fragile scared woman. She can take care of herself without a gun or a werewolf at home. She walks through the hallway to check the living room and finds it empty. She then checks the kitchen and also nothing. Finding that odd, she exits the kitchen and is about to go upstairs and leave all this behind when she sees the door that leads to the basement ajar. That door had been closed. And she's sure she didn't open it. She looks around,

"Thomas?" maybe he returned?

Not hearing an answer, she walks towards the door and opens it completely before turning on the light and enter the basement but doesn't go down; she stays at the top of the stairs.

"Who's there?" she asks.

Silence. Nothing comes.

"Yeah, Mary. Like someone's gonna answer that." she says to herself and is about to leave but hears another noise coming from the basement and this time she's not imagining it. She heard it. Still standing on top of the stairs, she takes a quick peek into the basement and yells

"Whoever is down there, I'm gonna lock you in now!"

As she turns around to exit the basement, however, the door suddenly shuts and smashed in her face and she stumbled backwards, the door knocking her down the stairs and to the basement floor. Pain is the first thing that she registers. Painfully she sits up and looks around but she doesn't see anyone there. But that doesn't stop her from feeling a little bit of fear. She sat up on the ice cold floor and brought a hand to her forehead, since it was pulsing with pain. Before she had time to get on her feet suddenly a small beach ball rolled towards her from the dark corner and stopped just a few meters away from her.

Mary didn't lose any more time and quickly ran upstairs just as the lightbulb exploded and the thick darkness that blinded her eyes made her scream as she reached the top of the stairs; she tried to open the door but found it locked.

"Hey! Help! Help me out!"

She knows it's futile since Thomas' not at home and Vince won't be here for another 20 minutes or so. Remembering the matches in her robe, she takes them out and lights one, looking from the top of the stairs to the bottom while breathing heavily. She couldn't see anything and by now she didn't know if that was good or not. The first match went out, so she lit a second one and held it down the stairs once more. She saw nothing for a while, only the darkly lit room, illuminated by the match when suddenly from the darkness behind Mary a pair of hands appear and clap, extinguishing the match and making Mary scream in terror ([x](https://media.giphy.com/media/Yplh1ZXxVPCdG/giphy.gif)).

Vince was just getting home after a long day. And by long he means tedious. He parked his car, killed the engine and was about to get out of the car when he hears Mary screaming bloody murder and his blood ran cold. He practically jumps out of the car, leaving the door open as he draws his gun and runs towards the door, opening it. He ran through the hallway until he heard that the screaming and banging noises where coming from the basement. He unlocked the door and Mary fell over his arms, clutching at him for dear life and trying to calm down.

Putting his gun away, he kneels to the ground, pulling them both to the floor level. "Mary, what happened? Are you hurt? Are you okay?!"

 _"It came out of the dark..."_ she whispers, not looking at him. She was staring at the dark stairs of the basement.

Vince frowns and looks to the basement. Nothing was heard from over there nor could be seen. But Mary was still trembling in his arms, and she was definitely scared by something. He caressed her hair and arms as Mary stared off at the nothing, breathing evenly as she once more said

"It came out of the dark."

 

* * *

 

At the Argent house over the blond witch's bedroom, Thomas and Newt were sleeping peacefully over the bed, backs facing each other and on their sides. Thomas' phone started ringing; the bright light coming from the screen illuminated his face, waking him up. As he stretched to grab the phone still lying on bed, Newt stirred little as he felt the mattress move so Thomas tried not to wake him up; he grabbed the phone and not even looking at it he turned it off, yawning as he rested again over the bed, his head over the pillow. He turned around so Newt's back was pressed against his chest and wrapped his arms around the witch, pressing his nose to Newt's neck.

 

* * *

 

A couple of hours later, the couple was still sleeping when someone knocked at the door of the Argent house. Thomas stirred in his sleep and groaned into the pillow. He didn't want to open his eyes as he didn't want to face the blinding daylight but the knocking didn't stopped. Defeated, Thomas had to open his eyes but found none daylight coming through the window. It was still dark outside. Once again a knock came to the door and now Newt was waking up. He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at Thomas with a questioning look. The brunet returned his look like answering he didn't know and they both turned to look at the closed door of Newt's room and turned to look at each other.

They got up from bed and went downstairs. They were going down the stairs when Thomas heard a single heartbeat on the other side of the door. They went to the door, but Thomas stayed hidden behind the door as Newt went to answer it. He opened the door and to his surprise found a deputy standing on the other side of the door, a patrol car just behind him. Newt didn't open the door completely and Thomas was behind listening.

"What is it, officer?" he asked to the man.

"Is Thomas Hawthorne here?"

At the mention of his name, Thomas frowned and came from behind the door, standing beside Newt although a little bit to the front. Both teens stood there as the deputy told them what was up.

 

* * *

 

Running towards and through the doors of the sheriff's station, Thomas looked around, trying to find his godparents as soon as possible. Once the deputy had told them that Mary had been attacked at the house, Thomas and Newt just grabbed a pair of shoes and went along with the deputy. He was still in his pajamas, expect he'd thrown on a grey zip-up hoodie to cover a little from the cold night. Newt was following from behind once he spotted Vince and ran towards him. His godfather saw him approaching,

"What happened? Is she okay?"

"Relax, she's fine. She's just... scared." Thomas let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in until now. "They're taking her statement right now."

"Was she able to tell you what attacked her?"

"When I found her she was pretty aghast and couldn't stop trembling. When I asked her she said she couldn't see but she swears it was someone with mean eyes and repulsive breath."

"Repulsive breath like _'smoking cigarettes'_ or like _'an animal crawled inside his mouth and died'_?"

"More likely the latter. But what's important is that she's safe and why weren't you at Minho's house like you told Mary?"

Wow, what a quick and smooth way to change the subject.

Thomas acts confused, "I was."

"The deputy went there to retrieve you but he said that when he arrived you weren't there."

Thomas stayed quiet for a moment before he answered "Newt asked me if I could come and check something and then I fell asleep."

Vince just stares at him with a look that says _'I may be old but I'm not stupid'_ and _'Do you think I'm an idiot or what?'_.

"...Okay. Let's say I believe you. I'm just gonna check if they're done so we can go home and rest." he turns around and starts walking towards where Mary was when Thomas thought of something and called out for him.

"Did she say anything else? Anything... _unofficial_?" he hoped that Vince knew he meant supernatural.

The older man seems to understand and shakes his head, "Not really." Thomas nods and turns around to face Newt when Vince is the one that now calls for him, "But she did say something weird. When I found her the first thing she could tell me was _'It came out of the dark'_."

" _'It came out of the dark'_?"

Vince nods. He turns around and continues walking away. Thomas stays where he is and frowns. He turns around and looks at Newt who obviously heard the same and is looking at him with worried written on his face. The happiness that he was feeling hours ago dissolved as he waited for Vince to come back with Mary.

 

* * *

 

On the next day at school, Thomas was taking his books out of his locker when his best friend approached him, nudging him on the side to have his attention.

"Hey, how's Mary?"

"She's fine. I mean, it scared the hell out of her but she's not hurt."

"And they don't know what happened?"

Thomas shakes his head, "No. They think that maybe when she hit her head on the ground she imagined everything else."

"And what do you think?"

Thomas opens his mouth and goes to say something but he doesn't know how to answer. He groans, "I don't know, Min." he closes his locker and smacks his forehead on it.

Minho pats his back when he sees someone behind Thomas making his way towards them and he grins; he then claps loud and yells

_"Yo, Archie!"_

A tall blond guy grins at him as he approaches Minho and they fist bump.

"Hey, dude. Coming to my fiesta?"

"Of course, dude. We wouldn't miss it."

"You think it's a good idea to give a party... you know, after what recently happened?" asks Thomas.

"It's exactly why I should be giving one." he winks an eye at them and leaves.

"So, you're going?" asks Minho to the brunet once the other is gone.

"I don't know. I don't really want to leave Mary alone again."

"Come on, dude! You know that Archie's parties are great! More than great! We need this. You need this."

Thomas closes his eyes and thinks about it for two whole minutes before he sighs,

"Okay, I'll go."

"YES!"

"But just because the others are going too."

"You mean Newt."

"Shut up."

 

* * *

 

At the sheriff's station, Vince was over his office when a knock came to his door. He looked up as the door opened and Alec entered the office with some folders on hand,

"Here are the files you requested, sir."

"Thank you, Alec."

Walking closer to the desk and not leaving immediately after delivering the folders, Alec asks "How's Mary?"

"She's fine now. She's at home, resting."

"And her shift at the hospital?"

"They're covering for her."

Alec nods, "Good." and leaves.

Alec exits the office and walks towards the small coffee longue they have. He finds Dick sitting over one of the tables, a coffee on hand and a magazine on the other. The blond man doesn't look up from his magazine as Alec passes behind him for some coffee. Once Alec has his back at him, Dick looks up and looks at him.

"Is everything alright?" he asks.

"Why you ask?"

"Because you seem tense."

Alec turns around with the coffee on hand, "I am not tense."

Dick stares at him and nods at his neck, "Your patch is peeling off."

Alec quickly brings a hand to his neck, slapping the skin colored patch back into place.

"You know, we used to work together and I never saw you smoking once."

Alec walks around the table to stand on the other side, "It's because I quit it back then, and then when I came here I started again but now I'm done with that stuff."

"Mm," hums the blond man, still looking at him.

"What?"

"Nothing." he goes back to read his magazine.

Alec shrugs it off and turns around to go back to his lab. The day started slow and calm. Let's just hope it stays that way.

 

* * *

 

The school went peaceful, without any incidents of any kind. Which was to say much compared to what happened on the last days. Once school was over for the day, the pack went back to their houses to get ready for the party. Thomas was ready, so he went downstairs to the living room where Mary was watching TV on the couch.

"Hey. I'm going now." the woman nods, "...You sure you don't want me to stay?"

"No, I'm fine, Thomas." she smiles kindly at him, "Go have fun."

"...Okay."

Thomas goes to turn around but looks at the front again; he shakes his head and walks to the door, exiting his house.

 

* * *

 

The pack arrives at the party over Archie's house and boy, was Minho right. This guys' parties were great. Loud music and drinks. Alcoholic drinks too, chips, strobes lights and many, many people. Mostly from school. Oh, an almost everyone was wearing a Halloween thematic mask or even a costume.

 

_Bang bang into the room (I know ya want it)_

_Bang bang all over you (I'll let ya have it)_

_Wait a minute lemme take you there (ah)_

_Wait a minute till ya (ah)_

 

People were dancing with the music, jumping around and having a good time. Others were at the snacks table or at the punch. Which was probably spiked. Or would be by the end of the night. The stroboscopic lights were illuminating everything and everyone.

 

"Alright! Let's go dance!" yelled Minho and the other raised their arms and yelled excited.

The music got louder -courtesy of the DJ- and people were dancing all over the place. Thomas, Newt, Minho, Teresa, Gally and Aris were at the dance floor, letting their bodies flow with the rhythm.

 

_Bang bang there goes your heart (I know ya want it)_

_Back, back seat of my car (I'll let ya have it)_

_Wait a minute lemme take you there (ah)_

_Wait a minute till ya (ah)_

 

The party went on but no one got tired. Occasionally one would go to rest over the couch for a little, then go back to dance. The punch, surprisingly enough, hadn't been spiked. Well, there was a special table for alcoholic drinks so there was no need. As Minho and Thomas went to the snacks table, the brunet yelled over the music,

"This party is incredible. I'm so glad I could come!"

Minho grins, "I know, right?!" he turns around and yells **_"WHOOOOO!! ARCHIE, YOU'RE THE BEST!"_**

Everyone yells too, agreeing with him. The best friends chuckle and go back to the dance floor.

 

* * *

 

Over the sheriff's station, Vince was coming out of the bathroom and was walking towards his office when he was intercepted by a female deputy on the phone. Alec was sitting beside her.

"Sir, there are complains about the music of some party at Foxtrot Street."

"Yeah, I got one here too." said another deputy.

Vince frowns, "Foxtrot Street, that seems familiar." he takes out his phone and starts checking his messages.

"Sir?"

Alec gets up from his seat and walks towards the older man, standing a meter away and waiting for him to answer. Vince finds what he was looking for and shows his phone to Alec, who reads the text:

From Thomas:

**_'Mary's at home watching TV. Call me if you need something, I'll be at a party on #5 of Foxtrot Street.'_ **

 

* * *

 

Back at the party, the pack had separated, each going somewhere else. Teresa and Aris were together over the dance floor, both of them laughing and smiling as they dance.

 

_We came to smash smash_

_We came to smash_

_We came to smash smash_

_We came to smash_

_Smash, smash_

_We came to smash_

 

Teresa patted Aris on his shoulder. "I'm going for some punch!" she yelled so he could hear her. Aris nodded and continued dancing.

Teresa went to the snacks table and got a cup of punch. She drank it as she saw her friends dancing happily.

Gally and Aris were dancing with Minho, the witch trying to make Gally get loose and dance with them but the sandy blond just turned his head to other side and acted as if he ignored him but his feet were moving so that was a good sign. Thomas and Newt were also dancing together, and she noticed how Thomas was way too happy for just to be able to dance near the blond witch. She smiled at that. After she finished her punch she threw the cup in the trash and went dancing again. How funny it is that once second ago she saw her friends and she separated her eyes from them for almost two seconds and now they weren't there? She looked around and couldn't find her friends, but she shrugged it off and continued dancing.

Out of nowhere she sees a person that sticks out but when someone dances in front of her, the person she saw disappeared. Teresa begins breathing hard and tried to calm down. _'Keep calm, keep calm. Maybe you are a little tired.'_ Just as she's calming down she sees a person with a strange white mask. First she thinks it's nothing 'cus everyone else is wearing a mask or costume and turns around to keep dancing. When she turns to another way, she sees the exact same person on the way she's looking. Now, that's freaky.

"Thomas?" it looks ridiculous for her to call out for him but she does anyways. She looks around but can't find the werewolf. She starts feeling a little scared now. The people around her make her feel dizzy and she can swear the one with the mask begins walking closer. She takes a step backwards. "Minho?" she keeps calling out her friends' names but there's too much noise for someone to hear her. She stumbles around the people, trying to find Thomas, Minho or Newt. Anyone.

"Thomas?!" she calls out again but with more panic in her tone.

She runs through the people, pushing them and looking back occasionally -not that anyone notices. The person is still slowly following after her. She looks at the front and almost falls over the floor. Her heart is plumping hard enough for her to hear it and the music is so loud that that should be impossible. _'I'm gonna pass out. Too many people!'_ She looks around and can't see the guy following her, but that doesn't make her stop. She feels a knot over her throat. She keeps running until a hand grabs her by the wrist,

"Teresa, you alr-

She screams. The DJ stops the music and takes off his headphones, and every and each people in the house stopped dancing or whatever they were doing. They all look at Teresa over her knees still screaming with her eyes shut.

"Teresa! Teresa, it's me, Thomas!" he still has her by the wrist, kneeling beside her and looking worriedly at her, "What's wrong? Teresa!"

The raven girl shakes her head, her eyes shut close but at least she stopped screaming. Thomas decides it's better to take her out of there. He gently helps her to her feet and still holding Teresa, they began passing between the crowd who were confused, watching him leave with the girl. The DJ decides to break the tension by putting the music back and it worked. Everyone else started dancing again. As they made their way to the door, Newt and Minho approached them.

"Thomas. What happened?" asks Newt.

"I- I don't know, but she needs some fresh air."

He was pulling her aside when the lights went off and everyone screamed at the sudden black out. Thomas used his werewolf sight to see in the dark. Everyone were moving and tripping with each other. They started murmuring worried about the lack of light. Thomas turned to the side and saw that Newt was still there, looking around the room. Thomas got a scent and whipped his head to where he detected that scent but as soon as he got it it disappeared and the lights came back.

The guests looked around and found the owner of the house and party organizer Archie coming from out of his house,

"Sorry about that. My neighbor is a party pooper and he pulled down the circuit breakers. Let's go back to partying!"

_"WHOOOOOOA!!"_

The DJ didn't lose time and went to put the music back on.

 

_I said, y'all having a good time out there?_

_Yeah, yeah, que no pare la fiesta_

_Don't stop the party_

_Yeah, yeah, que no pare la fiesta_

_Don't stop the party_

 

Thomas reacted and remembered what he was doing before the lights went off. He with the help of Newt got Teresa to stand up to her feet and they went to the door, exiting the house. They lead the raven girl to the front yard, far from the music so she could calm down. As Thomas stayed kneeled on the grass, still holding her -more like, she was holding onto him-, the rest of the pack seemed to notice that they were gone and they went out of the house after them.

"What happened?" asked Minho as he saw Teresa looking at the distance, trying to breath normal.

Thomas shook his head but the raven girl finally spoke,

"It came out of the dark."

They all turned to look at her, especially Thomas, who had heard those words before. They were the same that Mary had said when she was attacked. Teresa continued to stare off at the distance as she whispered

"It came out of the dark..."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it ;)  
> You're gonna hate me for the next chapter. I know it. I can feel it. But that's the way this goes, so I'll apologize right now for what's to come.


	4. Heartache

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, before you start reading I should probably tell you that you're going to hate me afterwards so for now I just want to say that I didn't enjoyed doing it but it had to happen for the fic to continue, and that at some point everything will get better, I promise.
> 
> Anyways, here's the next chapter.

On a brand new day, Thomas was walking along the sidewalk near the woods, coming back home after school, thinking about what happened with Teresa last night at the party when he stops abruptly. He stopped because he got the smell of blood coming from the woods. He frowns but not because it's blood, but because it smells familiar. Still frowning, he decides to investigate and enters the woods.

He's following the scent as he walks, one step at a time. His thoughts change from Teresa to the scent of blood that smells familiar. He gets deeper into the woods and he's about to go faster towards the scent when he thinks he hears something and gets another scent -not blood- and stops walking; his foot stopping mid-air and one inch about to touch the ground. Without putting his foot down, he looks down and moves his foot to the side and sees something shiny on the ground. A landmine. What the fu-

Still frowning, he lowers his foot to stay beside the other one and stares at the landmine. He looks around and something stirs his insides. Not moving his feet at all, he kneels to grab a medium sized rock and throws it somewhere around him. He wasn't really expecting anything, but another landmine going off when the rock falls to the ground does startles him. So he was right: it wasn't just one mine. But who-

Coming from behind him he hears someone applauding slowly. He turns around quickly, ready to fight in case he needed but his claws disappear once he sees his father standing there applauding at him,

"I see you've been training." his old man says, smiling at him.

"Dad."

Not waiting any longer, Thomas runs towards his dad and hugs him, the older man hugging him back. Oh, that familiar musky scent. He missed that.

 

* * *

 

They go back to the house only for Thomas to find his dad's stuff already there. So he came back earlier and decided to test me in the woods? They were over the dining room, his dad leaning against the table as Thomas went to get something to drink for both.

"So? How's school going?" asked Steve looking around.

"Fine."

"And your training?"

"I'm training every day, two-to-three hours each day."

"Good. And how are your friends?"

"They're great." _'They're alive, that's what matters.'_ he thought.

"...And that guy? The witch. Still a distraction?"

Thomas came out of the kitchen, holding a glass of water for his dad, "A distraction? Well, now he's more than that."

Steve raises an eyebrow at his son, "Oh, really?"

"Yeah."

The two of them stayed in silence, neither moving. Steve smiles at his son,

"That's good." and takes a sip from his water, "Remember what I taught you about triggers?"

"Pain makes you human."

Steve nods. "Good. I think you're doing pretty well, Thomas."

"I think so too. How long are you going to stay this time?"

"I'm not sure, but let's not worry about that. Let's worry about how I'm going to train you harder now that I'm here."

Thomas groans, "I knew you would say that!" with that he goes to the kitchen and opens the fridge.

Steve puts his water on the table, "Well, don't worry. I won't make you start today."

 _"Oh, good. Because I already had plans."_ came Thomas' voice from behind the fridge door.

Steve looks at his direction, an eyebrow up, "Oh? You were going out with your friends?"

_"...Something like that."_

Thomas takes a step back with ham and cheese and closes the fridge with his foot. He goes to the kitchen table and puts the things over it, turning around to grab the sandwich bread and chips from the counter. He sits on the chair and starts making a sandwich as his dad enters the kitchen,

"With Newt?" he asks.

Thomas doesn't look up to meet his eyes, but his heart skips a beat and his dad has his answer. He grabs the chips bag and opens it, pouring some inside the sandwich and then grabbing the other slice of bread and puts them together hearing the chips crack.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Look, dad, I have homework to do and then get ready to go out with Newt, so I must really go to my room." he grabs his sandwich and exits the kitchen.

Steve leaves the kitchen too and watches as his son runs upstairs and to his room, closing the door behind.

 

* * *

 

Teresa is lying on her side over bed, just staring at the nothing. Her blankets were covering her and her hair was cascading over the pillow. She looked at the clock she had on her night stand and looks at the time. School's over now. And why is she over her bed instead of coming back from school? After what happened last night at the party she couldn't go to school to face anyone. Besides, she told her mom she was feeling sick and her mom, after Thomas brought her back and told her the same, didn't questioned more and let her stay home. So this is where she was right now.

There's a knock on the door and that startles her at first but she calms down and still lying on her side she yells

"Come in!"

Teresa expects it to be her mom, or even her dad, but it's Minho who's the one that opens the door and enters her room. He walks to the side of the bed she's facing and keeps a distance so he can see her face,

"Hey. How are you?"

"I'm tired of people asking me how am I."

"Sorry. Some people just care."

Teresa sighs, "I know. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"And I'm fine, if you were wondering."

Minho looks around the room for something to sit and grabs the chair of her boudoir; he brings it closer to the bed and sits on it,

"You really worried us last night. What happened?"

"I'm not so sure. I just saw someone wearing a strange mask and it made me feel... not safe."

"Many were wearing masks."

"I know, but this one... It was like they were looking at me and I could tell their eyes were on me, piercing through the mask and just... staring."

"Maybe some guy who thought you looked nice and stared too much at you, thinking you wouldn't notice."

Teresa seems unconvinced, "...Maybe."

"Let's do something. I will go and buy some popcorn, maybe some candies and something to drink, and we can spend the whole afternoon watching movies. You pick."

"Don't you have homework?"

"Screw homework." he stays silent for a moment, "...I'll ask Aris to do it with magic."

"I thought so." Teresa is so happy that Minho's doing this to cheer her up. He's always the one to try and cheer her. Teresa smiles and sits on the bed; she was still on her pajamas. "I'll go change."

"No need. Your house, your room; you can stay in those. If you want me to I can take something off."

Teresa chuckles, "Keep your pants on, man."

"I was thinking my shirt, but ok." he grins. He laughs when the raven girl grabs a pillow and hits him with it. "Okay, so stay here and think about what movies you wanna watch. I'll go and buy the stuff ok?"

"Okay."

Minho nods and stands up, walking towards the door to exit her room but stops when his hand is on the doorframe. He turns to the bed,

"Hey, silly girl." Teresa looks at him, nodding as if asking what, "I'm glad that you're fine." and with that he leaves the room and goes downstairs.

Teresa stays sitting on her bed, looking at where Minho was just standing as she hears the main door close. She smiles. She's so lucky to have good friends like him.

 

* * *

 

Newt was walking down the street with a white plastic bag on hand towards his house. Just as he was coming back from school, his mom sent him a text asking him to buy more milk and crackers as they run out of them, so he went to nearest convenience store and bought the items. He was coming back from the store when as he walked, he felt someone following him. He keep calm and continues his walk, trying to see if he was imagining but no, definitely someone was following after him. He couldn't see who, but he wasn't taking any chances. As he turned around the corner, he didn't wait any more and turned around, raising his hand in case he needs to use his magic but to his surprise finds Thomas' dad Steve standing in front of him. He lowers his hand and stares at the man.

"Can we talk?"

 

* * *

 

Over a coffee shop, Newt and Thomas' dad were over a table at the back of establishment, waiting for their orders. They hadn't said a word to the other since they arrive but it's okay. Newt knows that whatever the man wants to speak with him he didn't wants to be interrupted by anything or anyone, so they wait. Minutes later the waitress arrives and puts their orders on the table and leaves with a smile. Newt grabbed his Earl Grey tea and with his hands on the cup he looks to the man,

"So, what do you want to talk about, sir?"

"I think you know."

Newt nods, "Thomas."

"Indeed. You see, I know you care about him, and I can tell that he cares a lot about you."

"Then what's the problem?"

Steve takes a sip from his coffee and then puts it down, "You know that werewolves need to train in order to maintain control and be stronger. And Thomas is still learning, but he won't be able to succeed if he has distractions."

Newt chuckles lightly, "You think I'm a distraction?"

"To Thomas you are."

The witch just stares at him, looking into his eyes before he knows where this is going.

"You want me to break up with him."

Steve looks down at his coffee and clearing his throat he says, "I believe that's the best in this situation. Thomas needs to focus on his training; he doesn't have time for things like that. Maybe once he's finished with his training he can be with you if that's what he wants."

 _'If that's what he wants.'_ lingers on his mind.

"I wouldn't be asking this if it weren't necessary. You might think I'm a bad parent but I'm actually looking out for Thomas. An unfocused and distracted werewolf is a slayed werewolf."

Newt looks down at his own coffee. This has to be the most bizarre conversation he's ever had but here he is, about to do something that he might regret. Licking his lips, he nods, "I will do it." Steve actually looks surprised, like he hadn't expected to hear him say that. "Not because you asked me to, but because I care for Thomas. But I will not break up with him; I'll ask him for a break and I will see how he takes it: If this can help him and actually focuses more in his training, then..." he takes some air, "I will break up with him. But if this only affects Thomas, then I won't keep going and you won't ever ask me this again. Am I clear?"

"Perfectly."

Deep down, Newt knew that somehow he would end up regretting having this conversation.

 

* * *

 

At Gally and Aris' mansion, the sandy blond guy was over the kitchen, trying to fix one of the kitchen shelves as it had broken that morning before going to school. Aris had told him that he could easily do it with magic, but Gally said he would fix it himself. So after they came back from school, he went for a hammer and some nails and here he was, trying to fix the shelf. Aris comes downstairs and to the kitchen for something to drink and he stops before reaching for the fridge at seeing Gally hammering the nail on its place. The sandy blond guy finished and wiping the sweat from his forehead, he takes a step back,

"So? How does it look?"

Aris tilts his head to the right, as if trying to find the shape of shelf. Gally rolls his eyes but gets the message,

"Okay, fine. Do it with magic."

Aris grins and holds his hand out for Gally to remove the cuff. The tall guy does it so, and Aris takes a step forward. With a swift of his hand the kitchen shelf appeared looking as if it were new but as soon as the shelf appears, Gally sees him close his eyes for a moment and take a step back and forward, opening his eyes quick.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, just got dizzy for a moment." he shivered, "Must be hungry."

"Then prepare something to eat."

"Can you do it for me?"

"Do it yourself."

"Come on! I just repaired the kitchen shelf!"

"No, you didn't!"

Aris huffs but moves to the fridge and opens it. He makes another move with his hand and various ingredients float out of the fridge and over the counter. He also again tumbles a little, seemingly dizzy, and Gally noticed.

"You sure you okay?"

"Yeah, I just told you. Hungry. But if you're that worried, then maybe you can make me-"

Gally points at him with the hammer, "No." he says sounding serious, and with that he exits the kitchen.

 

* * *

 

Thomas was over his room, lying on his stomach over his bed with his Econ book in front of him when a knock came to the main door. His dad had left minutes after he went to his room and he was alone at his house. He gets up from bed and exits his room, going downstairs to open the door. Once he opens it, he finds Newt standing there.

He smiles, "Hey. I thought we said six o'clock." his smile falls, "Oh, shit. Is it already six o'clock?!"

"No, no." Newt assures him, "I just came here... Can we... can we talk?"

Thomas nods and lets his boyfriend enter the house. They go to his room. Once there, Newt motions over his bed,

"Please sit."

"...Okay."

Thomas finds it odd that he asks him for that in a semi-serious tone, but he does it anyways. He moves aside his Econ book and sits, though Newt stays standing where he is. He's about to say something but he shuts his mouth, looking around as if trying to look for the right words. He also smelled of anxiety. And why was he nervous?

"Hey, take it easy. Whatever it is, you can tell me. Come on." he says with a reassuring smile.

Newt stares at him as if he had just told him he drove over a puppy by accident. Or as if he was the wound puppy. But what he doesn't know is why is Newt looking like that, and smelling like that-

"I think we should take a break."

It takes a moment but Thomas' smile falls. What? What? Did he heard right? He doesn't think so, 'cus Newt just- He just-"

"Wha- what... what are you saying?"

Newt sits beside him, trying to grab his hands, "I have a good reason to ask you this! Please trust me! _I-"_

Thomas stands up, getting away from the witch as fast as he can, not bothering to look at him, "Hold on. Hold on- I'm missing what you're saying. You can't keep talking... a-and expect me to follow it when you start the way you did."

"Just what did you hear?"

Thomas finally looks at him, "There was a crack in the planet."

Newt bites his lips with furrowed brows in a sad way. He smells sad, but he's not the only one feeling like that.

"Thomas-

"Did... Did I do something wrong?"

Immediately the witch gets up from bed but doesn't get near Thomas, "No, no! It's not that." he licks his lips, "I just..." he tries to look for the right words to say it, but there aren't right words to say this. He looks into Thomas' eyes, "You know I've trusted you in so many occasions, right? No matter what, I do. Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do."

"Then just trust that I really have feelings for you, but we need to spend some time apart. I need you to trust me now, ok? Can you? Please?"

Thomas feels like swallowing glass. Of course he wants to trust Newt. But what does it have to do with him asking for them to take a break. At least he's not breaking up with him. Oh God. What if this leads to that?

_"Thomas?"_

He hears Newt's soft voice. So soft it looks like he's calling for a frightened animal. His chest hurts. It hurts and so does his head. It feels like it is working extra hours and he can't- For a moment, he wants to yell but he can't. He hears Newt calling for him again, and this time he slowly turns his head towards the witch and his eyes meet his. He's still waiting for an answer, but he's not sure he wants to give him one. But he has to. Because this is Newt. The one he trusts and loves, and he's asking him to trust in him and that's what Thomas will do.

"...Okay."

The other doesn't move, but there is a certain change on his scent.

"Okay."

Newt doesn't thank him. Doesn't say anything afterwards. He just stays there for a couple of minutes that seem hours, before he leaves. Even minutes after Newt left, Thomas doesn't move. He feels like he can't move. The room feels like spinning around and at the same time it stays still. The only movement that there is it's his chest moving as he breathes. He can't be here. He has to get out. Out, out, out!

 

* * *

 

Minho and Teresa were halfway through watching Burlesque when the Asian's phone rang. Without pausing the movie, he grabbed his phone without looking who it was and answered,

"Hello? ... Thomas?"

Teresa turns her head at the mention of the brunet.

"Thomas, wha- What?" he frowns. Teresa pauses the movie, "Calm down, I can't understand-"

"What is it?" asks the raven girl.

"... Thomas, listen, I- _Thomas!_ " he separates the phone from his ear and stares at it. It appears that the call ended. Teresa is still looking at him, not knowing what had happened.

"Minho, what is it? Is Thomas alright?"

Minho is still staring at his phone as he answers "No, he's not."

 

* * *

 

Minho and Teresa went to the woods, from where Thomas had called him. As soon as the call ended, Minho told Teresa what the brunet told him -about Newt- and they didn't lose any more time and went there. Even though it wasn't dark outside, inside the woods you could never know so he brought a flashlight. They were now inside the woods, looking around for the brunet and also being careful. Minho was illuminating their path with the flashlight, Teresa standing close to him. They were looking at the right when they heard a branch crack and in fear Teresa grabs him by the arm; Minho points the flashlight to where the noise came from and they calm down when they see the person they were looking.

"Thomas." Minho says as he points the flashlight at his best friend, who was sitting on the dirt ground of the woods. He also didn't have his shirt on, and he was panting as if he had run a marathon. There were dried leafs on his hair and jeans and a little mud on his torso and arms. He was staring at the ground, where his hands were.

The brunet doesn't answer. He doesn't even turns to look at them or acknowledge their presence.

Minho shares a look with Teresa and, with the girl still grabbing his arm, they step closer to the brunet. Thomas doesn't move.

"Why?"

They're startled for a moment because Thomas spoke so sudden. The stare at their friend, who was still looking down as he asked one more time,

"Why?"

Minho gives the flashlight to Teresa. The blue eyed girl moves aside to let Minho take off his jacket and get closer to Thomas; he puts his jacket over his best friend's shoulder and carefully he cresses Thomas' arms as he manages to make him stand up.

"Let's take you home, buddy."

Thomas doesn't nod or answers to that, but he starts walking together with them, letting them lead him to his house.

 

* * *

 

"I told you I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

Minho and Teresa took Thomas to his house. Luckily neither his godparents nor his dad were there or they would be as concerned as Minho and Teresa were right now. They were over Thomas' room, the brunet was sitting on his bed, Minho was standing facing him and Teresa was sitting on the desk chair. He had 'woken' from the state he had been half hour ago and he had told his friends that he was fine and that they could leave, but they were having none of that.

"I'm serious, Min. I'm fine."

"Thomas, we found you half-naked on the woods and you looked like a zombie. You are not fine. Not after..." he stays silent.

Thomas looks at his hands, "I just can't believe it."

His friends don't know what to do or say. It had been so sudden that neither had seen it coming and they weren't prepared. Minho hated seeing his best friend like this. And especially how he had seen him at the woods. So he tries to help at any way he can,

"Hey, why don't we go to the carnival, get some corn dogs and spend the day there, huh?"

"Minho," the male turns to Teresa, who shakes her head, "no."

"No. I want to go out." Thomas says.

"Tom-"

"I don't wanna be here."

Minho and Teresa exchange looks. If that's a way they can help, they will.

So they take him to the carnival. They take him for food but he doesn't even enjoy the candy cotton. It tastes like a paper sheet right now. They take him to several games and he does have fun for a moment, but as soon as the game is over so is his mood. Right now Thomas had convinced them to go into an attraction by themselves, saying that he needed to rest for a moment. As they went to the roller coaster, Thomas decided to walk around. People were running and screaming and having fun, but he didn't paid attention to them. He continued until he passed a stand and a woman's voice

"Why's the long face, dear?"

Thomas stopped and turned around to the stand where the woman's voice came. He walked back and there behind the stand was an old woman with grayish hair combed into a bun-like style. Her eyes were dark brown accentuated with purple eye shadow and she had golden earrings. She was very wrinkly, obviously looking old. Thomas looked up and read the sign in purple letters that said **_'Madame Aroma'_**. He looked at the old woman and she smiled,

"Oh, a young man with love problems, mm?"

Thomas' eyes widened for a moment. _'How did she knew?'_ , "Umm, something like that."

"Do they don't love you back?"

"I..." he doesn't know what to answer. He thought Newt loved him back, but after what happened he's not so sure anymore. "I don't know. I mean, I thought they did but..."

The old lady smiles at him and moves to search for something. After some roaming, she turns back to Thomas, holding a small vial with a red liquid.

"Pour this into their beverage and they will love you or fall in love with you again, if that's the case."

Thomas doesn't grab the vial immediately; he stares at the vial and gives it a suspicious look. He doesn't know what that might be. It could be cherry juice or it could be something toxic.

And as if she could read minds, the woman smiles kindly at him, "Don't worry, dear, it doesn't have anything that will harm you or the other person."

Thomas nods at her. He goes to take his wallet out when the old lady holds a hand to stop him.

"No need, boy. It's a gift. And you don't have to pay for gifts."

Thomas accepts the vial and stares at the old woman before smiling at her,

"Thanks."

The old woman smiled back, her face wrinkling even more -if that's possible- than before. Thomas turns around and walks back to the roller coaster to wait for his friends. Well, maybe something good came out of this outing.

 

* * *

 

At the mansion, Gally was downstairs over the living room, quietly and calmly reading a book when he heard a scandalous noise of something breaking that he jumped to his feet and invoked his sword as he ran upstairs to where the noise came. He went to Aris' bedroom and pushed the door open to enter and found the witch kneeling over the floor and two vials broken on the floor. He made sure that no one was there to put his sword away. He approached the witch and kneeled in front of him, noticing that Aris was blinking a few times.

"What happened?"

"I was just..." he closed his eyes, "I needed some vials from my vault but I didn't want to go over there, so I appeared them and as soon as they were on my hands, I--" he opens his eyes and brings a hand to his head, "I got dizzy and found myself on the floor before I knew."

"You're getting a lot dizzy this day."

"I know." he says still pressing his hand to the side of his head.

Gally scoops him into his arms and carries him to his bed, avoiding the broken glass, and carefully lowers him onto the bed.

"You should rest."

Amazingly enough, Aris doesn't fight him about it. He nods and lies down as Gally turns around and leaves to get something to pick up the glass pieces.

 

* * *

 

Thomas had gone back home and told Minho and Teresa that he needed to be alone for a couple of hours. Worried but trusting their friend, they let him be. Thomas was right now at his room, staring at the vial with red liquid over his desk. It has been almost two hours since he came back with the vial and he's still deciding if he should try and use it. The old lady said that whatever it was, it wouldn't harm the one drinking it. Maybe he should try it first to see if it's harmful. But no, the old lady didn't say he should drink it. She said that the other person had to. To know if they loved him. To know if Newt loved him. Making up his mind, Thomas grabbed the vial and went to exit his room. He went downstairs and left his house in a hurry. He was running through the streets of Beacon Hills trying to catch the blond' scent when he finally got it. It came from the coffee shop a couple of blocks away from school.

He walked towards the door and saw Newt inside the coffee shop, waiting for his coffee over the counter. He smiled bitterly while watching him. Suddenly Newt's phone rang and he answered it, moving away from the counter as he spoke to whoever was calling. Thomas took the chance and entered the place; carefully he made his way towards the counter where he saw a warm coffee cup that had Newt's name scribbled with dark marker. Watching as Newt was still over his phone call and no one was watching, he opens the lid and he's about to pour it when he has second thoughts. Shaking his head, he pours the potion in the cup and watches as it mingles with the coffee. He hears Newt saying goodbye and he quickly hides behind a pillar, watching as Newt goes back to the counter and smiles at the cashier as he gives his money,

"Thanks." and grabs his coffee and exits the coffee shop. Thomas follows behind him at a safe distance to watch him take a sip from his coffee but nothing happens. Not that he was actually waiting for something to happen. Newt does stops walking and Thomas gets a little worried for a moment, but then witch continues walking as if nothing happened. Thomas lets out a sigh and turns around to leave. Maybe this was it. This really was the end.

 

* * *

 

At Gally and Aris' mansion, the sandy blond had to go for some medicine for Aris and Aris was somewhere over the rooms. There's a knock over the front door. Minho opens the door and enters the house. He looks around and finds the first floor empty.

"Hey! Sorry to bother but you wouldn't answer your phones so I thought I should come." he approaches the stairs, "Gally? Aris? You here?"

There's no answer. He frowns and goes upstairs, slowly making his way up. Once he reaches the top of the stairs and steps onto the hallway, he sees a figure lying on the floor in the middle of the hallway, and by the looks of it, it seemed to be Aris.

"Aris!" he runs towards the unconscious witch and kneels beside him, helping him sit up, "Aris? Are you okay?"

Aris manages to open his eyes, "Yeah, I'm... I'm fine. Just dizzy." he frowns, "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to tell you about something that happened."

"Is it bad?"

"You have no idea."

Aris closes his eyes again and brings his left hand to his temple as if he were in pain. Probably he was. Minho's eyes fall over the navy bead bracelet over Aris' wrist and- Wait. _Navy?_

"Wasn't that thing light blue?" he asks.

The witch opens his eyes and looks at the bracelet for a moment. He stares at it as if analyzing and then his eyes widen,

"Take it off." he turns to Minho, _"Take it off!"_ he yells desperate.

Minho immediately rips the bracelet off his wrist and throws it away from them; it falls to the ground and once it touches the floor the small beads break, a swirl of blue smoke comes out of them.

"What was that?"

"The beads on the bracelet were no ordinary. They suck off vital energy or in my case, magic." he tries to stand up with Minho's help, "Every time I used magic, the bracelet would drain my magic and therefore I would feel dizzy or faint." he chuckles at something, "I never thought that Gally would unintentionally hurt me." his smile falls.

"What?" asks Minho once he notices his face.

"We gotta find Thomas."

"And why's that?"

"Gally was the one to give me the bracelet. Do you remember where he got it?" he's not asking because he's forgotten; he's telling Minho to realize where.

Minho's eyes widen as the answer appears on his head, and Aris nods. Once Minho's sure that the witch can stand on his own, he walks towards the bracelet and stands above it for a moment before he raises his foot and stomps down on the beads, releasing the rest of the smoke.

 

* * *

 

The sun was down as Thomas was walking along the sidewalk somewhere over the streets of Beacon Hills. He didn't want to go home yet. He kept walking, looking down at the ground and his feet as he took every step that he didn't notice that where he was walking it was deserted. Not a single person in sight. He was walking when suddenly he heard something but he couldn't identify the sound. Whatever it was, he could hear it getting closer, so he just did the only thing that his mind yelled at him. Get down.

He threw himself to the ground as a fireball went over his head and hit a lamplight. Thomas stood up, taking his claws out and ready to fight when he stood still in his position as he saw Newt standing on the other side of the sidewalk.

"Newt, what-"

He didn't got to finish as another fireball came from Newt's hand and he threw it at the brunet, who again avoided it. Thomas stared wide eyed at the blond witch, who was looking at him with a look filled with... hate? Anger?

"Newt, what's wrong?!"

The blond raised his hand and green fire appeared, surrounding his hand, ready to attack again; Thomas is about to run when suddenly Aris Apparates in front of him and quickly grabs his hand and Disapparates them from there, luckily escaping.

Thomas and Aris Apparate somewhere away from where Newt was. As soon as they appear, Aris groans and holds his head for a moment. Thomas puts his hands on his sides to hold him, avoiding him to fall.

"Are you okay?"

Aris nods, "Yeah, a cup of tea and I'll be peachy."

"Okay, 'cus what the hell just happened there?! Listen, Newt suddenly hates me and apparently wants to kill me."

"Either you told him that his clothes doesn't suit him, or you gave him some of the potion Minho told me you got."

Thomas doesn't say anything, he diverts his gaze. "The whole vial."

"A love potion," Aris says, "Simple. He must love you."

Thomas blinks a few times in confusion, "Say what now?"

"Love potions have a kind of positive/negative charge. You hit an _"a"_ that's already deeply in love with _"b,"_ then bingo, bango, bazingo, the love turns to hate."

After hearing that, a smile appears over Thomas' face, "So Newt loves me?"

"Correction. He _loved_ you. Now he hates you."

Thomas moans, "Aris! What do I do?! I screwed up!"

"The only thing that can reverse the effects of a love potion is an antidote or another gulp from the love potion."

"So we just gotta give him another one?"

"You said you gave him the whole vial. Are you sure?"

"Well, I mean, I wasn't exactly measuring how much I gave him-"

"If there's still at least a drop of the potion, we can use it. Do you have it?"

Thomas searches in his pockets and takes out the vial. It indeed had a single red drop. Aris took the vial and stared at it,

"It really is a love potion."

"Yeah, didn't we already state that?"

"No, what I mean is if this really is a love potion, then where did you get it?"

Thomas stays still as he remembers the carnival and the old woman. How did the woman knew that was a magical potion? Did she know? Or maybe she didn't. Either ways, how did a potion like that appear in Beacon Hills?

There's an explosion and they turn to see Newt running towards them, his hand with green flames. He throws a big fireball at them. Aris runs to the left and Thomas just absorbs the attack, which ends sending him a couple of meters away and to the ground. He groans and tries to stand up,

"Newt, listen to me! I gave you a love potion. You only hate me because you love me!"

"The hate I feel for you is real!"

Newt holds his hand towards him and suddenly the earth where Thomas' standing starts to tremble. He looks down just as a crack appears on the ground.

"Thomas, keep away from there!" yells Aris.

Thomas throws himself to the other side. The ground continues to tremble and a crack opens on the ground just where Thomas had been standing. The brunet stares at it and then looks up at Newt, who is still looking at him with those eyes. The blond witch makes the stones levitate and uses them to hit Thomas, who just endures the hits of the stone until one of them hits him over the temple and cuts there, leaving a thin red line. Thomas touches as blood starts coming out from there and waits for it to heal. Another stone hits him and makes him lose his balance, as he ends up on his back on the hard ground again. He's thankful that Aris has the vial, 'cus if he had it right now it would've already broken. As Newt makes his way to him, Thomas tries to think what to do. An idea comes to mind. He waits until Newt is close enough, and just as the blond witch holds his hand up, ready to cast something he uses his legs to hit Newt's and make him fall on the ground too. Thomas gets up quickly and runs towards Aris, who gives him the vial and tells him to wait for his signal.

Thomas runs to the other side as Newt gets up and conjures a rope to wrap it around Thomas' right leg and pull at it, making the werewolf fall ungracefully to the ground, air knocking out from his lungs and the vial free-falling. Thomas brings both hands to the front in time to save the vial and gets up, turning to Newt. Newt moves as if he's about to run towards him but suddenly he feels like he's bound to the ground; he looks down and tugs at his legs but they won't give. They're magically held down by a silver like chain. From where he's standing, Aris holds his hand out to form the silver chain and yells

"Thomas, now!"

Thomas doesn't lose any more time and runs towards Newt, who was still trying to get loose from his bond. The blond witch looks up just as Thomas reaches him and he tries to cast a spell but Thomas holds his wrist a little hard, stopping him. Newt moans in pain at the grip on his arm. Thomas takes the lid off and brings the vial to Newt's lips and makes him drink the last drop. The empty vial falls and shatters on the ground as Newt starts to fight against his bond. Suddenly, he goes very still like he did when coming out of the coffee shop and his eyes close as he falls to the side but Thomas manages to catch him. Aris releases him from his chains and slumps to the ground.

Thomas is very happy to be able to hold Newt like this, so he closes his eyes and inhales his scent. Newt starts to move on his arms and he knows that he's coming back. The blond opens his eyes and looks around a little confused. Thomas moves aside and let go of him once he's able to stand on his own. Newt takes a couple of steps backwards and turns to Thomas.

"Newt, are you ok?"

Newt stares at him, his eyes going all over his face as if inspecting it. Maybe he was dizzy. He doesn't know how you feel once you're out of a potion. He looks over to where Aris is unconscious on the ground and he knows he can't ask him. Maybe later.

"You used a love potion on me?"

Thomas turns to look at him and wants to cry. From everything that he could've told him, he said that? But he knows he has to be honest. Newt had a confused yet hurt expression.

"I-I got it at the carnival after our talk and I know I shouldn't have, but I was hurting, and I was going mad not being able to be near you. I guess I thought you didn't like me anymore." he breathes out. Newt opens his mouth but turns around, covering his eyes with both hands as Thomas continues, "If I'd know this whole thing was almost gonna get me slain, I--"

The blond witch uncovers his eyes and stares at the nothing. _"An unfocused and distracted werewolf is a slain werewolf."_ Newt repeats what Thomas' dad had told him and realization hits him. For almost a minute he doesn't say anything.

"What?"

"...I'm sorry, Thomas. But I don't think this is gonna work out."

Thomas freezes. No. "Newt, don't say that."

"I told you to trust me and you didn't!" he looks around, trying to avoid tears from coming out, "I-I told you to trust me, that I had a good reason to do this and that I had feelings for you but you didn't listened! You made me drink something to what, to force me to fall in love with you?!"

"No!"

"Then why did you do it?! Why?! And why you couldn't trust me?!"

Thomas knows there are tears on his eyes too and they sting and he feels his heart beating so hard inside his chest it feels like it's gonna jump out of it. He feels the words choking in his throat. Newt's face was red, and not the type of red when he was embarrassed. He was fuming with anger. Anger and sadness. And Thomas doesn't know how to answer to that. He stood there feeling completely naked. When he couldn't find any words of any kind, Newt nodded as if he had his answer and gave him a bitter smile. Tears were wetting his cheeks. He went to opens his mouth to say something to him, but he seemed to think better about it and he closes his mouth and just turns around and starts walking away. Away from there and away from Thomas.

Thomas didn't shout after him. Thomas didn't went after him. He couldn't move. His legs wouldn't obey him; they could barely hold him so he wouldn't fall on the ground. He watched as Newt ran away -he isn't sure at what moment he started running- and couldn't help the tears from coming out. They were falling and there was no way to stop them now. He made his hand a fist and could feel his claws digging against his palm and blood coming out but he didn't cared. He didn't care anymore. He looked up at the moon over the sky and with his eyes glowing golden he let out a howl.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you. You hate me now. Sorry not sorry?


	5. Gone Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it!! For the ones that wanted Newtmas to get back together, sorry :(  
> Anyways, I really hope you like it~

At his house Thomas was slumped over his bed, staring at the ceiling for no particularly reason. It had been two days since the last time he saw Newt. Since the day they... broke up. Thomas doesn't know if it had been a blessing or a curse that those two days had been the weekend, but that meant that tomorrow he had to go to school and see Newt. The sky was dark right now but he wasn't sleepy. Minho was over the desk's chair, one leg propped up and his arm resting above it as he watched his best friend.

"Dude, you've been staring at the ceiling for more than 10 minutes. I'm not sure you've even blinked."

Thomas seems to shake out of his trance 'cus he turns his head to Minho, "Sorry."

His voice sounds sad and broken and Minho feels bad for him. He really does. That's why he's here. He's been with Thomas the past two days, trying to cheer him up but at the end he hadn't been that helpful. Looking out of the window, he tries to change the topic.

"Tomorrow we have school."

"...Yeah."

"You're going to see him again tomorrow."

"...Yeah."

"What are you going to do?"

Thomas shrugs, "I don't know. What should I do? I mean, I could just ignore him?"

"But you share classes."

"Then I'll sit as far from him as I can."

"And what about lunch? We all sit together at lunch."

Thomas turns his body to look at his friend, "Minho, I don't know!" he sighs, "I just... I'll figure it out, ok?"

Minho nods, looking at the floor. He gets up from the chair and stands beside the bed,

"We should get something to eat and then go to bed. We don't wanna be late tomorrow."

"Yeah..."

Thomas rolls out of his bed and they both get out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen. Tomorrow was going to a long day.

 

* * *

 

The next day at the morning, the sheriff had been called to a crime scene so he brought Alec with him. They arrived at the indicated location and got out of the car; they walked towards the crime scene and saw a woman with long curled blonde hair tied in a high ponytail waiting for them. She looked about Alec's age or maybe two years older. She was standing beside what appeared to be a body covered by a blanket.

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot." says the sheriff as they're standing beside the woman, "Stark's boss sent us some help. Sarah McNemey, forensic anthropologist. This is Alexander Montgomery, our forensic scientist."

"Just _'Alec'_." says the brunet scientist with a smile.

"Well, _'just Alec'_ , Sir, I'm glad that you're here. I may have done a quick preliminary assessment of my own, and I must say something is definitely weird." she partially pulls away the blanket and the sheriff has to look away for a moment, while Alec makes a face.

"Decapitation." says Alec with a frown.

"Yeah."

"Yikes."

She covers the body again as Alec moves closer, "We're still recovering parts of the head, so the ID is taking a little longer than normal." and moves to take a step away to give Alec space, _"Ahh!"_ she looks down to her feet, as well as Alec and the sheriff, "Urgh, sorry. I thought I stepped on an ear." she smiles, "I didn't. If I did, I'd be hearing things."

As she laughs at her own joke, Alec laughs at that too. They smile at each other, while the sheriff looks between both of them and says, "Dear god, there's two of them now." and turns around to leave.

The two scientists stay beside the body, still looking for evidence, "Well, the decapitation indeed was something weird," he kneels over the floor, noticing something beside the body's right leg. He puts his gloves on and grabs it, holding it to the light but he couldn't identify what it was.

"What's that?" asks the woman.

"I don't know. Let's go back to my lab so we can analyze it while they bring over the body."

"Ok."

 

* * *

 

Over school, Thomas was walking towards his class with his book in hand. When he woke up, he stared five minutes at his clock before deciding to get up from bed and take a shower. He really hadn't wanted to go to school, but Minho had awakened as he took his shower and they both had to go together, so he had to. Gally didn't pick them up. Apparently Minho had asked him not to, so they would go in the bus. Thomas dreaded to meet Newt there but Minho reassured him that he asked Gally not to pick them up so he could pick Newt instead, that way the blond witch wouldn't take the bus today. God bless Minho.

Thomas arrived at school no longer than five minutes and so far he hasn't seen Newt. He entered his Physics class and sat on an empty seat, putting his books on the desk and his backpack on the floor beside him. He started drumming his fingers against his book as he looked around the class. Most of the students were still out of the classroom, talking with other students. The bell rang and the rest of the students entered the classroom and took their seats. Just as Thomas thought he had nothing to worry, a mop of blond hair appeared through the door and his senses were assaulted by the fresh scent of cinnamon. Newt entered the classroom holding his book and made his way to the seat, but for some reason he went to approach Thomas. Wait, what? The blond witch was walking towards him and he actually stopped in front of him, but he wasn't exactly looking at him. He was looking at the seat in front of Thomas. The only empty seat in the whole class, Thomas noticed. Oh, shit.

Newt bites his lip as he stares at the seat and then side looks at Thomas,

"Is someone...?"

"No, no, no, no." he points at the seat, "Not, it's all yours. Uh, it's totally vacant."

Newt nods at him and without saying anything else sits down, putting his book on the desk and staring right at the front of the class as the teacher entered the classroom, greeting everyone. He made the roll call and then immediately started writing over the board, but Thomas couldn't bring himself to grab his pen and start writing. He kept staring at Newt back as the blond started searching inside his satchel for something. Thomas watched as his hair moved ever so lightly while he moved his hand inside his satchel. Even immersed in his inner turmoil, Thomas heard the faint _"Where's my pen?"_ coming from him and he snapped out of it because his heart suddenly hurt. That's how they first met. No wonder it hurt so bad. Newt slowly looks around as if deciding who he should ask for a pen when his eyes start moving towards Thomas. Thomas stills. His eyes are about to meet him, but the girl beside him must've hear him as she was holding a pen to him.

Newt smiled at her, "Thanks," and takes the pen, turning his attention back to the front of the classroom.

Thomas mad his hand a fist, tightening his grip but he didn't do anything. He didn't say anything and maybe that would be for the best. The teacher had already covered half of the board and Thomas really didn't want to fight with his teacher about him not writing down anything.

 

* * *

 

Over the lab, Alec and Sara were waiting for the results of the thing Alec found in the scene. They were sitting over the table, with several papers -information- in front of them. The blonde woman stretched a little,

"I swear I can't properly work without enough sleep or a good cup of coffee." said the woman offering a weak smile.

"I actually haven't slept since yesterday on the afternoon."

"You must be tired and wanting to go home to your girlfriend after a long day."

Alec chuckles, "Oh, no. I mean, yeah I'm tired, but I would just go back to an empty house."

"Oh, then no girlfriend?"

"Nope,"

"Boyfriend?"

"Nope,"

"How come? You're smart, good-looking, funny,"

Alec shrugs, not really affected by the question, "I don't know. Maybe that's the way it has to be?"

The woman stares at him as if he were a unique specimen. She smiled as he didn't noticed and then trying to act casual she spoke again,

"I was thinking... Would you like to go for a cup of coffee? Since we're going to be working nonstop?"

Alec, not noticing the relation between her offer and her questions about his personal and romantic life, smiled at her, "Sure,"

Sara smiled back, "Excellent."

They get up and exit the lab, leaving behind the papers over the table.

 

* * *

 

Lunch came along and Thomas sat with Minho over their usual table while Teresa sat with Newt at the end of the cafeteria. Now, that was a sudden change. Gally and Aris were nowhere to be seen. As Minho started eating his food, Thomas tried not to look over Newt and Teresa. Being at Physics class with Newt in front of him had been a torture. The blond hadn't even acknowledge him in any way expect when he asked if the seat was taken and when the bell rang and they accidentally met each other's eyes. He knows that somehow Newt was also sad, a lingering scent was always on him but he acted more neutral than Thomas. Over their table, Newt and Teresa were calmly talking while they ate. Many things were over his head right now and thank God he was shaken out of his thoughts by Minho speaking to him,

"What are you hearing?" Minho asked in front of him.

"What?" Thomas turned his attention to the raven male.

Minho nodded somewhere above his shoulder, "What's Newt and Teresa talking about?"

"I'm not listening. I never listen."

"Really?"

Thomas nods, "He wants space, I'm giving him space."

"Man, you're loyal."

 _'Like a dog.'_ he thought.

He shook his head and his thoughts and decided to change the subject, "Hey, have you seen Gally or Aris?"

"I had Econ with Gally but after that... No."

"Where are they? They should be here already."

"Why? You want to see where they would sit?"

"What?"

"You know, who gets the custody of whom? I'm here with you and Teresa is over there with Newt, so that leaves Gally and Aris."

Thomas frowns, "Min, that's really-"

"What's going to happen? Yeah, totally." Minho answered as he took a gulp from his soda.

Now Thomas felt guilty about it. He hadn't actually thought about that. Sure, Minho had been his friend first but the others? They practically interacted at the same time with him and with Newt. And Thomas didn't want to make them choose. And he was pretty sure that neither did Newt. He was starting to get deep into his thoughts and Minho noticed it.

"Hey, I'm messing with you. You don't actually think that we're gonna choose sides, do you? Come on, man. We're all friends here."

"...yeah. Yeah, I know."

Minho looks down at his finished lunch and grabs his tray, intending to get up,

"I've finished. I'm taking this to the trash."

"Ok."

Minho stood up and made his way to the big trash container. Someone stood beside him and he knew who it was. He turns to make sure that Thomas isn't looking and turns to Teresa,

"Hey. How's he doing?" she asks as she puts her tray on top of the others.

Minho sighs, "At least he's trying. How's Newt doing?"

"Same. I mean, he might not look like it, but he's really hurting."

"Yeah. Thomas thought that we would pick sides."

"That's ridiculous."

"I know. But we kind of did."

"I know, but it would have been horrible if I came to sit with you two while Newt stays alone. Or if neither would have sat with them because we didn't want them to think we're sitting down with them because we were picking sides."

"Good point."

"Now what?"

"We support our friends." he turns to look at Thomas, "At any way we can."

 

* * *

 

Back at the lab, Sara and Alec were over the table but this time with a coffee on their hands. The whole lab smelled like coffee. They had also bought some donuts. After all the work they had done, they decided to take a short break.

"We look like cliché policemen." says Alec.

The woman licks her fingers, "Who cares? These donuts are delicious!"

Alec smiles and inhales the aroma of his coffee. The blonde woman watches him and grabbing a napkin, she wipes her mouth and after a moment of silence decides to speak again,

"I was thinking.... I wanted to go to the carnival but I don't know the town that much, and I don't know anyone... So, would you like to go with me?"

"To the carnival? Of course!" answers Alec excited.

Sarah smiles, "Okay. So, at 6 o'clock is fine?"

"Sure."

 _"McNemey! Montgomery! Come here right now!"_ came the sheriff's voice from outside the lab.

The blond woman and Alec stood up, leaving their coffees and donuts and went to where the sheriff was. They didn't want to get in troubles.

A couple of hours later, Alec was walking towards the cafeteria room to put the rest of the uneaten donuts there when he found Dick standing there, preparing coffee but apparently there was no more coffee. The blond man turns to him as the brunet scientist puts the donuts box on the counter,

"Well, I take you've met Sara McNemey."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you look tired as hell. Maybe you should go home and rest for the rest of the day." he says grabbing a donut.

"I can't do that, I have plans."

"You have plans?"

"Yeah,"

"Staying over your place and watching Netflix all night doesn't fall under the category of 'plans'."

"No..." he draws the _'no'_ a little, "I'm actually going to the carnival with Sarah McNemey. She asked me over coffee and I said yes."

Dick actually stays in his place, not moving -not even to eat the donut- and seemingly studying the brunet.

"What?" asks Alec.

"You have a date."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No. I'm just going to go to the carnival with Sarah."

Dick stares at him, "Alec, that's a date."

"But she didn't mean it like that."

"Did she ask you if you had girlfriend before asking you for a coffee?"

"Yes."

The blond man pats his over the shoulder, "It's a date." and he goes to leave if not for the sudden grip and tug at his arm.

"You gotta help me!"

Dick frowns, "I thought you said you had everything-"

"Not about that! The date! I don't know what to do!"

"Just do what you normally do in dates." answers the blond man finally eating his donut.

"I've never been on a date!"

Dick seems dumbfounded, "Wha- what? You've never-" he chuckles, "You've never been on a date before? What are you, virgin Mary?" the way Alec avoids his eyes is enough answer and Dick's eyes widen at the revelation, "Oh my god- are you a vir--"

Alec puts his hands over his mouth, "Louder, Stark, I don't think they heard you _IN URUGUAY!_ "

The blond man removes his hand from his lips with a grin, "It's not a big deal, you know?"

"Oh, sure, look who's saying it, Mr. _Woman fawn over me 'cus I'm muy Macho_."

Dick laughs at that. He wipes a fake tear from his eyes and looks at the brunet scientist, "But talking seriously. You want an advice? Just relax and be you. The awkwardly cute scientist you."

"I am not cute." pouts the other.

"Whatever. Just be you and remember, you don't have to pay for everything. Not all chicks like that." he's about to leave but he turns back to Alec, "Oh, also... There was the biggest fuckin' nerd sitting in your desk yesterday."

Alec stays silent for a moment while processing that before frowning and yelling in a high pitch voice "That was me with my glasses on!" as the blond man snorts, already knowing that. He's not cute my ass.

 

* * *

 

School had never been more torturous than it had been today. Thomas had another two classes with Newt, but they both sat at different poles. No joking. At History Thomas sat at the first seat in the front row and Newt sat on the last seat of the last row. At Literature it was less dramatic but luckily Minho had been there to keep him distracted. The three of them -Thomas, Minho and Teresa- had gone to Thomas' house. They entered the house and surprisingly enough found it empty. As they were entering, Teresa kept talking to the brunet,

"All I'm saying is that sometimes the hardest part isn't letting go, but rather learning to start over."

Thomas snorts, "What, you're a poet now?"

"No. Nicole Sobon said that."

Thomas turns to Minho, who shrugs, "I don't know who that is."

They go to the kitchen -leaving their backpacks at the living room- for something to drink. As Thomas opened the fridge and took out the juice jar, Teresa grabbed the glasses. Minho grabbed his and suddenly his eyes widen,

"Oh! I almost forgot. I found Gally after Econ. He said that he and Aris had been trying to investigate the bracelet. You remember I told you?"

"Yeah, the one that he got at the carnival." said Thomas as he poured the juice.

"Yeah, but they're still trying to decipher something about the bracelet so they asked us if we could go and check at the carnival. And there's also the old lady that gave you that potion." with that, he drinks from his glass.

Thomas stays still, thinking about it for a moment before nodding, "Okay. Let's go investigate." he puts the jar inside the fridge again.

"Wait, you're sure?"

"Yeah. Listen, I don't wanna stay home and do homework while I think about Newt. Besides, Gally and Aris are gonna be occupied and someone needs to do this and you know what I always say: One's an incident, two's coincidence--"

"Three's a pattern." Minho finishes.

"What's the third?" Teresa asks.

"The mask you told me you saw at the party? I found it at one of the stands over the carnival. Just like you described it."

Teresa turns to Thomas, "So we're going?"

Thomas nods, "We're going."

 

* * *

 

The three of them went to the carnival and found it already with people. It's been a week since the carnival arrived and every single day there's a lot of people there. This place sure wins a lot of money. Looking around the place, they started walking towards where Minho told them the stand of the masks was. Screaming and mechanical noises were all they could hear, but they managed to hear Minho telling them that they were getting close. After they go to that stand, they're going to try and find the old kind lady who gave Thomas the potion. But Thomas doesn't exactly remember where it had been. He hadn't been paying attention. He got out of his thoughts as he heard Minho speak,

"This way." he says as he looks at the front, "I was just literally walking, goofing around when the mask caught my attention. It was there on display and it was the only one, so I asked the guy if there was another like that and he said that no, that this was the only one. It matched Teresa's description perfectly but I didn't had any more money on me and--" he stops both walking and talking, making Thomas stop too. "This can't be."

"What?"

"The stand is gone." he says pointing at the front of them, where there was another stand of games. Not the one Minho said.

"What do you mean?"

"I-It was right here!"

"You sure it was here? Maybe it was somewhere else."

"No. It was between the dart & balloons game and the milk can toss game. I swear!"

"Okay. So they just... removed the stand? From one day to the other?" Thomas frowned at his own words.

"Don't talk to me like that, Hawthorne."

"Minho, it's okay. Maybe you just got confused, don't you think, T?"

There's no answer.

"Teresa?" they both turn around but don't find the girl. "Teresa?"

Somewhere over the carnival, Teresa was still walking when she noticed that she lose sight of Thomas and Minho. Great. Now what? Should she continue until she bumps into them? Or should she try to find one of the two stands? She continues walking, making her way through the people, passing by all the stands when a soft music playing somewhere gets her attention. She stops and turns her head to the blue and yellow tent to her right. Looking around, she decides to follow the tune and enters the tent. The music was clearer inside the tent and it was obviously from here where that tune came from.

Teresa starts walking while looking around to the bunch of toys that were on shelves. Some looked cute. Others were broken. But at the center of the tent was a big table with several repairing instruments and there at the center of the table was a small toy that resembles a flowerbud with a golden key that was sticking out of one of its petals. The tune was apparently coming from it. She approaches the table and stares at the toy as the tune suddenly dies. Frowning a little, she goes to touch to toy when a figure appears and she screams, startled. A man wearing steampunk googles that covered his eyes, a beige apron with a bowtie, a work belt around his waist and dark brown gloves approaches her. He had a moustache and greyish hair. He did look like an old man but not that old.

Teresa puts a hand over her chest as she calms down, "Sorry! I didn't know there was someone in here!"

The man smiles gently at her, "It's okay, girl. You can stay if you want." he says as he takes off his googles, leaving them hanging from his neck, "You were hearing the melody?"

"Yes, I heard it from outside and it was so beautiful that I came here to hear it closely." she looks at the flower-like toy, "Is it a music box?"

"Oh, and that's not all."

The man gently grabs the flower and winds up the key a few times before setting it on the table again. The gentle tune starts playing again but this time the fuchsia flower's petals unfolded to reveal a beautiful ballerina with dark hair and fair skin, which slowly rose up onto her petite feet and started to softly dance to the tune's melody. Teresa stared at it marveled, watching the ballerina dance,

"It's so beautiful." she says in awe.

"Thank you. I made it for my daughter when she was little."

"Really? Where's she now?"

The man smiled bitterly, "She passed away a couple of years ago."

Teresa looks at the man with a sorrowed look, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine." he looks at the ballerina still dancing and sits down on the stool in front of the table, "Every time I hear this tune playing, I remember her. After I lost her... I got depressed. I couldn't go to work, and started doing things wrong. I lost my job and I couldn't get a job anywhere except here. So, I ended up working here."

"It must be fun to work in a carnival." said Teresa turning to the man with a smile.

"If I must really say it, I don't particularly love it here."

Teresa frowns, "If you don't like it then why don't you quit?"

"I have no choice."

"What do you mean you don't have a choice? There's always a choice."

The man looks at her in a way that can only be described as tender when suddenly a noise comes from the place he came in. The man's posture changes and he stands up, even his moustache going into straight line. Was he startled or was he... scared?

"I think I have to go back to work. And I think it's time for you to go back to your friends." he said in a neutral tone.

Teresa nodded, although she wanted to hear more of the tune. The ballerina continued gracefully dancing. The raven girl thanked the man for letting her stay and showing her the beautiful toy and she left. As soon as she was out of sight, the man sighed and turned to the ballerina. The graceful ballerina came to a stop, going back to being a flowerbud and the tune ended.

Teresa came out of the tent and looked back one more time before continuing her way. As she was walking, she thought she saw Minho so she followed him. The tall raven was walking far ahead from her and probably couldn't hear her calling out his name. She ran towards him and for a moment lost him until she saw him entering the Mirror Maze. She entered too and followed the guy but when she reached him, she saw that it wasn't Minho but a guy that looked like him from behind.

"Sorry."

She apologized and he left. Teresa stayed there for almost a whole minute, staring at the mirrors surrounding her before she decided she should get out and search for her friends. She was about to leave when she saw two persons a couple of steps ahead from her: a woman and a man. The woman had dark long hair and was dressed in a short deep green dress and the man had short dirty blond hair and was wearing a white button up shirt with grey pants. Although she couldn't see their faces, Teresa recognized them.

"Mom? Dad?"

Her parents turn around indeed they are her parents. Emily and Andrew are facing towards her, and for no reason Teresa feels a little relieved that she smiles at seeing them.

"It's you. It's all you." her mom says in a bitter tone that makes Teresa's smile fall.

Teresa frowns, "What?"

Her dad looks up, "You know, every day since you started having these... whatever they were, I thought, _'why did it had to be us? How the hell are we going to raise this crazy girl?'_ " he points at her, "It's all you."

Teresa feels the corner of her eyes sting.

"What do you think people will say about us?" says her mom.

Teresa shakes her head, feeling tears escaping her eyes and going down her cheeks.

"Why couldn't we have a normal girl?"

The raven girl covers her ears so she can shut what they're saying, but it's futile. Tears continue going down her cheeks, and her chest was heaving up and down from her struggle. She doesn't see the covered hands appearing behind her and reaching out for her.

"Why were you even born?"

Teresa screams at the top of her lungs, eyes shut closed and hands covering her ears. Her ear piercing scream is so loud that it starts cracking some of the mirrors. The hands stop and quickly disappear at hearing her scream. From where he was, Thomas covers his ears and turns his head as he hears Teresa's screams, and it appears that he's not the only one. Some people start turning their heads at the scream, frowns over their faces. But they don't cover their ears as they can't hear it as loud as Thomas can. Teresa continues screaming until she runs out of strength and she falls to the ground unconscious. Thomas and Minho enter the mirror maze running, looking for the raven girl and finally find her lying on the floor unconscious near some broken mirrors,

"Teresa."

Thomas kneels beside her, and not wasting anymore time he passed her right arm around his neck and the other in front, then he picked her up and carried her bridal style, his left hand at Teresa's back and the other one behind her knees. Minho goes to the front to make room so Thomas can exit the maze while carrying the raven girl, ignoring all the looks from the people around them.

 

* * *

 

They brought Teresa to her house, where her mom asked what happened after seeing her unconscious daughter on Thomas' arms. They told her that they all went to Thomas' house after school and minutes ago she fell asleep and her mom believed them. Thomas brought her to her room and carefully lowered her to her bed.

Teresa woke up a couple of minutes later after Thomas and Minho had left. She realized she was at her room over her house. She went downstairs and towards the living room where her mom was watching a movie, curling over the couch. Teresa went to the couch and sat beside her mom, who grabbed the blanket she had and wrapped it around the two of them as they watch the TV.

 

* * *

 

When the sky was dark and the moon was up shining in the sky, Alec and Sara came back from their 'date'. The brunet had accompanied the blond woman back to her house. Going to the carnival had been the most fun Alec has had in several weeks. Maybe a month. They had laughed and won prizes, and that's what counted. They walked towards her door and stood there, looking at each other.

"I really had fun." she says with a smile, batting her eyelashes a little.

"Me too."

"So, I'll see you tomorrow at work? There's still a case we need to resolve."

"Of course. So I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay." the woman enters her house, and before closing the door she smiles, "Goodnight." and then closes the door.

Alec smiles and with that he turns around, ready to leave. He starts walking towards his car when his phone rings. He looks at the ID and answers,

"Hey, what's up?"

Dick's voice comes from the other side of the line, _"Nothing. I just wanted to know if your date has already run away from hearing you speak about the Latin name of some animal which I don't even know the name in English."_

Alec rolls his eyes, "Jerk. And no, she didn't. She actually had fun. She told me so."

_"So what? Are you over her room?"_

"I'm sorry, I plead the 5th."

He can hear the smile over the other's face, _"Are you serious?"_

"Yes, it means I decline to answer questions where the answers might incriminate me."

Dick laughs hard. Alec smiles at hearing him laugh.

_"Okay, you nerd. Go home and get some sleep. We still need you tomorrow, so don't be late. Okay?"_

"Okay. Goodnight, Dick."

 _"G'night."_ he ended the call. Alec puts his phone away and went to his car, leaving that house to go to his own.

 

* * *

 

Teresa slowly blinked awake, the bright blue of the TV on stand-by bothering her eyes as they tried to stay open and focus on her surroundings. She slowly sat up on the couch where she had fallen asleep, and rubbed her face as she yawned. She didn't know exactly at which movie she fell asleep, but she did realize she was alone. She looked around and her eyes fell on a note stick to the control.

**_'I had to go out. They needed me at the office. After I finish with that I'll go to the market for food. We ran out of... everything, apparently. -Love, mom.'_ **

She smiled at the note and then stretched over the couch, deciding if she should go back to sleep or stay awake. That was when she heard it. Strange noises coming from the back door over the kitchen. The locked knob jiggling; a soft thumping. Like someone trying to get into the house. Panic clenched her chest. The noises from the back door were getting louder, so Teresa bolted up from the couch and to her room. She snatched her phone from the bedside table and crawled under the bed. She didn't wasted time and dialed the only number she could think of: Thomas' number. With every ring that passed, her heart pounded against her chest faster and harder.

"Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up..."

 

* * *

 

Over his house, Thomas came out of the shower and the first thing he heard was his phone ringing. He came out of the bathroom with his boxers on and a towel drying his hair as he went to where he left his phone. As he grabbed his phone he saw Teresa's name flash on the screen, and answered,

"Hey, what's up-"

 _"Thomas."_ he heard the raven girl's voice filled with fear and frowned.

"Teresa, what's-"

_"Someone's trying to enter my house."_

Thomas felt as if someone had kicked him in the stomach, taking all of the air out. He managed to find his voice. "Wha- wait, are you sure? Is anyone with you right now?"

She started rambling. _"No, I'm alone. My mom had to go out for some work stuff and I fell asleep in the couch watching a movie."_

"Okay, okay. Teresa, I need you to listen to me, ok?" as he said that, he went to his desk and trashed around it, trying to find what he was looking for. He found it and took it out; a small tape recorder Vince had given to him when he turned 9. He puts the phone down over his desk together with the recorder and, putting the phone in speaker, he starts recording. "Okay, Teresa. Where are you right now?"

_"I'm under my bed in my room."_

"Can you get out of your house without whoever is trying to get in notice you?

She shook her head, _"N-no. No, I can't."_

"Okay. Breathe, okay?"

Her breath hitched in her throat when something in the kitchen's door clicked. The house was in so much silence she perfectly heard the knob turn and the door open. Feeling every fiber in her body tremble, she said in a whisper,

_"They're inside the house."_

Thomas held his breath, like you would do in a horror movie every time the serial killer was getting near to the main characters. He wished he could get out of his house, and in minutes he would be at Teresa's place but he couldn't attack those people. Even if they deserved it. He was pretty sure he would be too pumped out with adrenaline to not wolf out. What if those guys saw him?

Hearing noises coming from downstairs Teresa closed her eyes as tears went down her face. She knew what was gonna happen. She just knew it! Once they didn't find anything downstairs they were going to get upstairs and search the bedrooms. They were gonna find her.

Footsteps were heard coming upstairs, but no voices. Teresa clutched the phone to her ear, her hand trembling. Right now it was too late to try to exit through any window; she would make noise and alert the intruders of her presence, but maybe that would scare them? Knowing that the house wasn't empty? Or maybe not... Maybe it would make them violent.

_"Thomas, I'm scared."_

The footsteps started down the hall.

"Teresa... Teresa, listen to me. Put the phone down on the floor so I can hear everything."

Nodding even thought she wasn't seen, Teresa set the phone on the floor and pressed her hands over her mouth, trying to regulate her breathing.

And then it happened. The distinct sound of footsteps entering her bedroom and then two pairs of boots appeared at the foot of the bed. The raven girl bit on her hand, trying not to let any noise escape. One pair strolled to the side of the bed while the other remained in place. Teresa could only watch the movement. The first pair faced the other one; Teresa was sure they would talk.

Still listening on the other line, Thomas waited to hear the voice of at least one of the persons there but instead of voices, strange noises were heard. A hoarse raucous sound, also somehow metallic every then and now. What the hell? Those noises were definitely not human.

Hands trembling against the floor, Teresa stared at the pair of booths facing each other. It seemed like they were communicating between them with those noises. They seemed to be discussing about something by the way their noises escalated into cawing. Teresa could only compare those cawing to the ones the raptors in the Jurassic Park movie made, and that did not make her feel better. Her heart beat faster than before. It seemed like it would never end.

Once the one from the right made another noise, they both walked back to the door, exiting the room. Teresa stood still, hearing the footsteps getting away; she tried to relax, letting out the air she was holding in. She grabbed the phone and putted it back over her ear,

_"They're leaving. I think they're—"_

She didn't get to finish as all of a sudden, something wrapped around her ankle and pulled at her, making her drop the phone. She screamed, searching frantically for something, _anything_ , to grab onto as she was yanked out from under the bed.

Thomas stood there hearing the screams of his friend on the other side of the line. He heard -beside from her screams- some rustling like as if Teresa was fighting against whoever was taking her. His hands were now fists, the knuckles turning white. The rustling continued and then everything went silent, but the line was still on. He waited for anything, -literally, _anything_ \- a sound, a voice, a name, something. He heard some rustling and then the phone being picked up. Nobody spoke or even breathed, but Thomas knew there was someone on the other side, listening to him. He waited patiently until the call ended. As soon as the line went dead, Thomas stopped the recorder. He tried to calm down, tried to breath; he closed his eyes and made his hand a fist to control himself.

He picks up his phone again and dials a number. He waits for the other person to answer and when he does, he doesn't even bother with a 'hello' or 'hi'.

"Minho, I need you to call Newt and for you two to come to my house right now. I'll call Aris and Gally."

_"Thomas, what's wrong?"_

"Teresa's been taken."

 

* * *

 

Minutes later and everyone was at Thomas house; they were currently at his room, standing around the desk, looking down at the recorder in middle of it. They were hearing Teresa's abduction. It was awkward to be in the same room -not to mention that this is his room- with Newt and try not to look at him, but right now was not the time. Over the tape, they heard her breath hitch and a moment later her voice came in a whisper,

_"They're inside the house."_

Newt covered his mouth with his hand. Gally closed his eyes and so did Minho. Thomas tried to pick up anything he didn't hear the first time. At first he heard nothing, but when he strained his ears he picked up faint thumps in the background. _'Footsteps?'_ he thought.

As the distinct sounds of someone climbing the stairs was heard, Teresa's trembling voice was too.

_"Thomas, I'm scared."_

Newt looked over at Thomas.

 _"Teresa... Teresa, listen to me._ _Put the phone down on the floor so I can hear everything."_

Thomas was standing still, his whole posture rigid. He hated how weak his voice was heard in the recording, but he knew he couldn't do anything to change it. He had been weak. He couldn't prevent the kidnapping from happening.

More footsteps were heard, louder now. Shoes against the floor, unmistakable now, thumped in the phone's speaker. They were in the same room. The hoarse metallic alien sounds followed and everyone frowned at hearing those sounds. Neither of them knew what that was. They continued hearing until the footsteps left the room and Teresa let out a relieved sigh.

Teresa panted, _"They're leaving. I think they're—"_

A screech filled his ear, startling everyone in the room. Audible banging and thumping indicated a struggle. Thomas visualized Teresa being dragged out from under the bed and the fear she must have had at that moment. The rest of the gang just stood there uncomfortable at hearing the girl's screams. Then Teresa's screams ceased and everything went silent. Next was the rustling and the phone being picked up. Thomas continued to curl his hand into a fist, claws digging into his palm. The line was silent and then the call ended.

They stayed in silence. Thomas was about to grab the recorder and put it away when Aris spoke,

"Wait. Can you play it again? Right before she got..." he didn't finish the phrase but Thomas understood.

The brunet werewolf pushed the right buttons and the recorder went backwards; when he tough it was the right moment he stopped it and played it. The tape started playing when whoever the hell was entered Teresa's bedroom. They heard footsteps and then, that sound. That hoarse, somehow metallic sound, and then the cawing. It still sent shivers down Thomas' back.

Aris furrowed his brows, staring at the record with unnerving eyes. The pack stared at him.

"What are you saying? What are you looking for?" he says to the air in a soft voice.

"Aris?"

The brunet witch holds his hand up, stopping them from interrupting, his eyes never leaving the recorder. The cawing escalated and then they stopped. Their footsteps leaving the room were heard and Thomas stopped the recorder before they could hear Teresa's desperate screaming.

"You know what they were saying?" he asks the lighter brunet witch.

"They were searching for something... I-I don't know what but they knew they needed to come to that house."

"To Teresa's house?" asks Newt. Aris nods.

"You know what they are?" asks Gally, arms crossed over his chest.

"No, I... This might sound stupid. I understood what they were saying but... I don't have any idea of what they are."

"Is that even possible?" asks Minho.

Aris shrugs.

Newt is the next to speak, "Okay, so what are we saying here? That Teresa got kidnapped by someone, like, human? Or something supernatural related?"

Minho points at the recorder, "Those sounds are far from being human!"

Newt continues, "Okay. If it had something to do with the supernatural then what kidnapped her?

"And why." adds Gally.

Minho nods along, "And why. Why would any supernatural creature kidnap a human?"

"Usually? To kill them or eat them." answers Aris. The rest of the pack turns to him, "What? You wanted to know."

Minho turns to Thomas, "How are we gonna find her?"

" _'How are we gonna find her?'_ " repeats Aris, "Excuse me, we're not. We'll leave this to the police."

Thomas turns dumbfounded to him, "What?"

"This is not like when Teresa got lost in the woods. We're talking about someone coming into her house and taking her by force."

"I'm with Aris. They'll be able to find her better than us. They're trained for that." says Gally.

"I can't believe you, guys." says Newt looking at them with a mixed expression.

"It's not like we don't care, but Thomas can tell Vince about the call and the police will be able to find her."

At that moment, Thomas heard something downstairs and turned his attention to it, ignoring the argument going on his room.

"This is ridiculous. We should be out there looking for her." said Minho.

"And where do you expect us to start?"

 _"SHH!"_ comes from Thomas as he cuts them off. They turned to look at Thomas, who held his hand up as he repeated "Shh." he turned his head to the right as he heard Vince's radio and the deputy calling him, telling him about someone having disappeared. Coincidence too much?

 

* * *

 

They drove to the direction Thomas heard that was given to Vince through the radio. Something about that direction... it sounded familiar but he didn't know why. As soon as they got closer, they saw -beside the deputies- other people outside the house -neighbors, probably. They were whispering between them, muttering things he didn't wanted to bother listen now. The red and blue lights from the patrol cars were illuminating the whole place. Some deputies seemed to be inside the house, while the rest was trying to keep the people out of the perimeter. It wasn't until Gally was parking the truck when Thomas realized something.

This was Alec's house.

Thomas got out of the truck and didn't even wait for the rest to get out. That's why the direction sounded familiar. This was Alec's house. But where was he? He didn't see him as he got closer; he walked until he saw Vince talking to a female deputy. He nodded as she talked and then she went back inside the house. Vince turned around and that's when Thomas approached him,

"What's going on?"

The older man looked at him as he moved a hand over his face, trying to wipe away the tension from his face. He wasn't even mad that Thomas had followed him to another scene, or apparently heard him talking through his radio.

"Alec is missing."

 

* * *

 

Underneath ground in an unknown place, there's a gloomy room with no windows and just one door where Alec and Teresa are, sitting on the cold ground with their wrists and ankles tied to the wall with chains. They both look at each other with sorrow in their eyes and look around the room, not having idea where they were.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sorrynotsorry* Cliffhanger!!!! Kind of...


	6. More Bad Than Good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I'm here with the next chapter :) and there's only two more chapters for this season to be over!  
> Enjoy the chapter!

It was cold inside the room as much as it had been outside. The room was light up by two light-bulbs; it wasn't exactly dirty or something like that, but it seemed old and unattended. Maybe some abandoned place. A house? There were no windows, but you could breathe easily. There was just one door. One entrance, one exit.

Alec doesn't know why he ended up here, tied with chains to the walls and sitting beside Teresa. After his shift ended, he had gone to the carnival with Sara and then he accompanied her to her house. He got a call from Dick, left and went to his house but when he got inside his house, he saw a shadow behind him and as he turned around he felt something being injected in his neck and then his world went black. When he woke up he was already in this room and Teresa was unconscious beside him. Right now, they were the only ones here; the ones who kidnapped them nowhere in sight. The young scientist tries to test the chain's strength as he tugs at them. It's futile. He sighs and looks over at Teresa, who is also looking around and seems tense.

"Hey," she looks at him, "you okay?"

Teresa nods.

"Good. I suppose you didn't saw where they were taking you when they kidnapped you?"

"No, I was unconscious."

"Same with me." he sighs again.

The brunet looks around, trying to identify the place they are but he doesn't recognize anything. Where they even still on Beacon Hills? He's looking around when the girl's voice brings him out of his thoughts.

"So, are we going to talk about the ones that took us away or...?"

Alec looks at her and they stare at each other before they both laugh. "Sorry, it's just so strange. I barely even saw them before everything went black. Is it me or where they like...?"

"Clowns? Yes, they were. It's creepy on so many levels. I mean, clowns..." she shudders.

Alec nods at her, understanding her. "Coulrophobia— abnormal fear of clowns."

"Oh, no, there is nothing abnormal about it. When I was 11, a hobo clown groped my breast at a birthday party and made this old-timey honking noise when he did it."

Alec chuckles, looking at the ground for a moment, "Yeah, it sounds horrible."

They hear a strange noise and they both shut up, looking around but see nothing. They look at each other with worried faces.

 

* * *

 

It was still dark outside as the deputies were all over Alec's house. After Thomas and the pack arrived, Vince had told him to go home and that he would go later. The brunet did as he was told and didn't got a chance to tell Vince about Teresa. The red and blue police lights were illuminating the streets and the sheriff, Vince and Sara made their way into the house. Inside, a team was already collecting any kind of evidence they could find.

"So what do we have so far?" Vince asks to the technician.

"The door was open when Agent Stark arrived. He entered the property and made sure not to touch anything. The phone was on the floor next to the doorway." he points to the door, "I think Alec opened the door, was about to enter his house and he got attacked from behind. He might've never seen his attacker coming."

"There's no blood?"

"None."

"And what about the cellphone?"

"He might've dropped it or maybe the attacker left it here so we couldn't track it."

Vince nods, "Thanks," he says to the tech guy. The other man nods and turns back to one of his co-workers.

Dick approached them, hands on his hips and moving his jacket behind as he stood in front of them, "Found anything?"

Vince shakes his head, "You know how sometimes things are."

Sara turned to the muscled blond man, "Why were you here, by the way?"

"I called Alec but he didn't answer his phone. I tried again and two more times but he didn't answer. So I decided to come and check and that's when I found the door open and Alec nowhere. That's the last time I knew about him. What about you?"

"He left me at my house and then he left. That's the last time I saw him."

"Around the same time I did." she nods. Dick sighs, turning to look at Vince, "So what now?"

"We keep looking for anything that can help us find Alec.

 

* * *

 

At Thomas' house, the pack was still trying to understand why both Teresa and Alec were gone. Well, supposing that the two kidnappings were related. Who are they kidding? It's unlikely that two kidnappings happen almost at the same time in the same town at the same day but by different perpetrators. But why?

Minho spoke first, "Maybe they got captured for a reason. You know, like they may have seen something about them to make them want to take Teresa and Alec."

"And what could that be? Something supernatural?" Newt asks.

Thomas answers "But Teresa is not supernatural. Why would they want her?"

Aris turns to Thomas, "What about Alec? How long have you known him?"

"Long enough to know that there's nothing fishy about him."

"Then we're back at zero." sighs Minho.

They all stayed in silence. Back at zero meant they couldn't start helping with the search of Teresa and Alec. They all felt useless. The silence continued.

"Anyone else thinks we might be doing more harm than good?" Newt asks out of the blue. They all turn to look at him, "Teresa said she was alone, so that means that her mom left not too long. She will be coming back soon and she's gonna notice Teresa's gone. We're gonna look bad if she calls the police and then we appear with the recording."

Minho sighs, "I think you're right." he turns to Thomas, "We need to tell them about Teresa."

"How are we going to explain the strange sounds in her phone call?"

"Thomas, Alec was kidnapped too! This may be related."

"Yeah, and what if it's not? And what if they ask why I recorded the call and not call the police as soon as the call ended?"

Gally speaks next, "Thomas, you're a teenager not a police officer! You got scared, did what you thought it was the right thing and recorded the call so the police could use it to find Teresa."

Calming down a little, Thomas looks betweens his friends and after a moment nods. He knows they all are right.

They ended up giving the recording to the police -more like, to Vince- and when Vince delivered it to the sheriff nobody asked why Thomas recorded it. They actually said it had been a good idea. While hearing the recording of the phone call, they all were wondering what those strange noises were, but neither got an answer. Thomas went back to his house as he heard Vince telling the sheriff that he would call Teresa's parents and inform them about her disappearance. Thomas felt a knot on his stomach.

 

* * *

 

At the next morning, Mary came upstairs to wake Thomas up as he hadn't come down to have breakfast and he was going to be late. She opened the door and saw to her surprise Thomas sitting over his desk chair, staring at the recording machine and not blinking.

"Hey. Aren't you gonna have breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry." he answered without looking at her.

"It's not going to make you any well going to school without having breakfast."

"I'm not going."

Mary blinked, "What?"

"To school. I'm not going."

"Ooh, but of course you are."

"Mary, please don't make me go."

Thomas turns to look at her and she can see by his tired eyes that he didn't slept a little. _'He must have stayed all night thinking about Teresa.'_ Knowing how much this must be affecting him, Mary nods. _'Just for this time'_ she thinks. She goes to close the door but Thomas' voice stops her,

"Where's Vince?"

She turns around, "He's still at the station. He didn't come back last night." she offers him a small smile, "You're not the only one worried about her, you know?"

"I know."

Mary nods again and this time closes the door.

 

* * *

 

At the station, everyone was working on Teresa's and Alec's disappearance. Hours ago they had come to the conclusion that the two kidnappings were related. Now they had to find the one or ones that took them. Inside Vince's office, Sara and Dick were checking all the photos of the crime scene aka Alec's house. They had gone to Teresa's house too and the photos were also there but not much could be seen. There wasn't any finger print, anything out of its place, no blood or hair. The only thing that they had was the recording Thomas gave them.

"This is useless. We don't have anything except for the tape and even that is kind of useless. There were zero voices in it."

"Maybe they didn't want to be recognized." Dick says.

"So that means that maybe the victim knows her attacker?"

"Maybe. Or maybe they didn't want to be recognized after if they get caught."

Sara huffs. Vince speaks next,

"Okay, let's calm down a little. I know we've been working on this since last night, but if we don't eat or drink something we're going to continue."

"I'll go bring coffee." Dick says as he gets up and leaves the office.

Sara stands up too, "I'll help him." and she exits the office behind Dick.

Dick walks towards the coffee longue and he grabs the coffee jar when he sees Sara entering too. She walks past him and goes to grab where some cookies were. As he starts making fresh coffee, he turns to her,

"What do you want, McNemey?"

The blond woman turns to him, "Me?" she asks innocently. Innocently fake.

"Yeah. Spit it out already. I know you."

"And I know _you._ " she says as if it was something bad, "I know how you are and you wouldn't be this tense for an agent disappearing."

"You mean that I don't care?"

"No. I mean that you seem to care about Alec much than for any other agent. So? What are you hiding?"

"Oh, okay, you've discovered it. We're secretly married and that's the only reasonable explanation of why I'm worried about him. Nothing to do that he's a friend and a colleague." he says with sarcasm.

"All I'm saying is that if you know something or are keeping information to yourself, you should probably say it."

"What do you mean with _'keep information to myself'_?"

Sara doesn't answer to that. She grabs the cookies and leaves the room, going back to Vince's office. Dick stays there with the coffee still preparing.

 

* * *

 

Back at where Alec and Teresa were being held prisoners, the two of them were still sitting down on the floor, their bodies turned to face each other. They hadn't got any good sleep. Teresa slept two or three hours while Alec guarded the door, and Alec said he wasn't sleepy, but he would close his eyes from time to time. Not having heard anything from their kidnappers, they were talking between them,

"So why do you think we're here?" she asks.

"A macabre game?"

"Well, it's working." she looks around. "I don't know why I'm here. I was at my house and then..." she remembers her kidnapping and her phone call to Thomas, "I was here."

"Same here. I arrived at my house and felt something on my neck and I lost consciousness. Woke up like this." he says tugging at the chains.

"I think it's morning." Alec says frowning.

"How do you know?"

"I can't tell by certain, but it's been a couple of hours since we're here. It was kind of like ten when I went back to my house, so..."

"So it's the next day?"

"Yeah."

They stay in silence for a moment.

"Do you think they're gonna find us?" Teresa asks looking down at her hands.

Alec turns to her, "Yes. They will notice our absence and start wondering where are we."

"But what if it's too late then?"

"Do you trust in your friends?"

"Of course."

"So do I. I trust in Vince, Sara, Stark, in the whole police station. Damn it, I even trust the sheriff."

Teresa chuckles.

"So we just have to endure it. Leave the rest to our friends."

Teresa nods.

Suddenly the door slams open and two tall figures wearing hoods that obscured their faces enter the room, walking directly towards Teresa. As he sees this, Alec starts fighting against his chains,

"What do you want?! Hey! Hey, stand back!"

They get to Teresa and one of them takes out a syringe with a purple liquid, holding it towards the raven girl's neck.

"No! No!" Teresa tries to fight but the one holding her is pretty strong. They successfully inject her with whatever that was and pull the needle away. Teresa shuts her eyes as she starts feeling her whole body numb. How is that possible so quick? One of the persons grabs her and throws her over their shoulder as they start walking towards the door.

"Alec! Alec!"

"Leave her alone! What are you going to do to her?!" they don't stop nor turn to him as Alec continues to pull at his chains and yell _"What are you going to do to her?!"_

The door closes.

 

* * *

 

Thomas was still over his room when a knock came to his room. He turned to the door as it opened and revealed Minho.

"So you didn't go either, huh?"

Thomas shook his head, "I couldn't."

"Yeah, I get you, bro." he enters the room, closing the door behind him as he approaches his best friend over the bed. "I called Aris. He told me he's going to try a tracking spell but he needs something belonging to Teresa."

Thomas realizes where this is going. "We need to go to Teresa's house."

Minho nods.

 

* * *

 

They both go to Teresa's house and stand outside for a couple of minutes before they ring the bell. It's not even a minute since they rang the bell and the door opens to reveal Emily -Teresa's mother. She looks between them as they decide who should talk first. Minho is the one,

"Sorry to bother you, miss Wilde. Can we come in?"

Emily nods at them and moves aside to let them come in. They enter the house and as the door closes behind them they stare around. Not even a day ago they came here to deliver Teresa to her mom. Not even a day ago Teresa had been with them. The dark haired woman crosses her arms over her chest; she turns to Thomas,

"You're the one that gave the police the phone recording, right?"

"Yes."

She smiles, "Thank you. We're really grateful."

 _'We're really grateful.'_ lingers on Thomas' mind.

"My ex-husband and I. He's at the sheriff's station right now in case something happens."

"We're really sorry for what's happening, miss Wilde." Thomas says, "We really are."

"Yeah, I know. You're her friends; of course you would be worried about her too."

Minho takes a moment before he speaks, "What we can't understand is... how? How it happened?" he exchanges a look with Thomas, "Can we...? If it's not too much?"

"You want to go to her room?"

They nod, "Yes, ma'am."

Emily seems to think about it and she nods. She leads them to the stairs and the three of them go upstairs and straight to Teresa's room. As they go through the stairs, Thomas imagines Teresa running through them 'till she reached her bedroom.

They get to Teresa's room and for a moment just stand outside before actually stepping in. The room seems pretty normal to be a 'crime scene'. Nothing's out of place. Thomas imagines Teresa getting underneath her bed and dialing his number on the phone.

"Everything's in its place." mentions Minho.

"Yeah... It was like this when I arrived and when the police did. She got kidnapped but her whole room is just as she left it." she answers in a sad tone.

Thomas turns to the bed again and sees Teresa still under the bed, holding her breath and covering her mouth with trembling hands. Teresa's mom continued talking but Thomas wasn't listening. He was playing the kidnapping in his mind over and over. From Teresa calling him and telling him that someone wanted to get in her house, to her piercing screams as they took her away.

Teresa's mom approaches the bed and she sits on it, "I just keep thinking about that poor girl from last week and I-- I can't help but to think... What if that happens to her?"

"It won't." Minho says.

"But what if it does?"

"It won't." Thomas says this time, turning around to face them. The determination on his face it's like he's telling her that he won't let it happen.

The woman smiles and looks down at her hands. Minho moves so he's in front of her and points at Thomas to move around the room. Oh right. They came here for something of Teresa's. The brunet walks backwards towards her boudoir and still facing the other two grabs the blue earphones on top of a book and puts them in his pockets. He nods at Minho.

Minho turns to the woman, "Miss Wilde, don't worry. Teresa will be fine. They're gonna find her."

Emily smiles and nods to him. Thomas knows that they all think the same thing:

That wherever Teresa is, she's unhurt.

 

* * *

 

Teresa opens her eyes and the first thing she sees is the ceiling. A dark and dirty ceiling with a light bulb hanging from it. She was in another room, different from the one she and Alec were held. Instead of the cold floor she found herself on a dentist-like chair in the middle of the room.  She tried to keep her eyes open and calm down,

 _'Okay, breathe in. Remember what you learned at First Aids class. What do you know about dizziness related to any kind of drug? Ok: Don't move your head so suddenly. Keep taking deep breathes. Trying to get on your feet and walk or run are a no-no. Try to see your surroundings and try to find someone who can assist you. Well, that's gonna be an issue right now.'_ she says as she realizes she's alone in that room. Good thing or bad thing?

She closes her eyes once more and tries to regulate her breathings when she hears music playing. But not any music. It's the tune. The tune she heard at the carnival. The tune from the ballerina toy that man had made for his daughter. Why was she hearing it right now? Was she really hearing it or was she imagining it? Teresa tries to move her head to the side but it's so heavy that she can't without wincing. Too sudden! _Too sudden!_

Where's Alec? Where is she right now? Where are the ones that took her?

She starts hearing a strange sound, almost like static when suddenly it's like someone blew a balloon just beside her ear. It's a sudden and loud noise that she sits up in a second and screams. All other noise is instantly over. She finishes and falls back to the chair she's sitting on exhausted. Her head is still pounding and just before she knows it she passes out. When she recovers the consciousness she notices that she's back to where she and Alec were being held. The brunet was beside her,

"Are you okay?" he asks.

Teresa doesn't know how to answer.

 

* * *

 

At the sheriff's station, Vince and Dick were over Vince's office checking everything they knew about the kidnapping when Sara knocked on the open door, asking for permission to enter the office. Once she was given permission, she entered holding a paper with something printed on it.

"Sir, I have the results from the thing Alec and I found at the crime scene yesterday."

"And?"

"It was bone."

Vince blinks a couple of times, "Come again?"

"A piece of bone to be precisely." she hands over the paper, "By the way it's splintered it seems to be broken but the victim wasn't missing any. Even with his head practically destroyed."

Vince looks up from the paper, "So what are you telling me? Is it relevant to the case or not?"

"I... I'm not sure."

"So you have nothing?" Dick asks.

Sara barely even glances at him before answering "Yes."

Vince puts the paper down, "So what now?"

"We should go to the carnival." Dick says.

Sara now really turns to him, "This isn't the time for games, Stark."

"I meant for the investigation. That's the last place Alec was seen, with you if may I add, so we should go and check. Maybe someone saw him."

"Stark is right." Vince says, "We need to go to the carnival. Maybe there we'll have luck."

 

* * *

 

After Teresa's house, Thomas and Minho go to Aris mansion. They find the door unlocked for them, so they just get upstairs and to Aris' vault. As they are about to enter the room Thomas gets the scent of cinnamon too late for him to stop. They enter the room and the first thing they see if Newt sitting over a stool, reading a book. The blond witch raises his head as they enter the room. Thomas and Newt stare at each other for a minute before Aris' voice makes them look away,

"So neither of you went to school? Naughty boys. You're all going to be on Santa's list." he points at Newt, "Naughty," then at Thomas, "naughty," then at Minho, "naughty."

"You tried to take over the world." Gally says.

Aris points at himself with a grin, _"Naughty~"_

Gally rolls his eyes and turns to the two best friends, "You have it?"

Minho nods. Thomas takes the earphones out of his pocket and gives them to Gally, who in return gives them to Aris. The lighter brunet witch was in front of the table with several stuff over it. He grabs the glass where he's mixing the things and pours the cyan color liquid onto the earphones. The earphones start floating as Aris says,

"Okay. Now we follow them."

They get out of the house as they follow the floating earphones. It would be strange if anyone saw the earphones floating but they didn't care right now. The earphones go in straight line that it almost looks too easy. They continue until they reach the empty part on the side of the woods. Thomas has his claws out in case he needs them; Gally has a hand to the side in case he needs to invoke his sword. They were expecting an abandoned property like a shack or something but the only thing that happens is that they come to a stop once the earphones stop floating and fall to the ground. There's nothing there where they are. Not a single building or shack. Not a single person. They could only hear the carnival music at the distance. Aris goes to pick them up,

"This is it."

Minho frowns, "This is it? This can't be it! There's nothing here!"

"I know, but the track stops here." he stands up again, "Sorry."

"So this is it?" Newt asks.

 _'No.'_  Thomas says from the inside. This can't be it. They still need to find Teresa. She's still out there somewhere and so is Alec.

Minho has a look that says that he's thinking about something, but Gally speaks next, "So what now? We can go back to the mansion and we'll figure it out-

"She screamed..." interrupts Minho out of the nowhere, "Teresa screamed. At the carnival." he looks up at Thomas.

Thomas remembers that and something clicks on his mind, "Yes."

"What?" Aris asks.

"We went to the carnival to investigate what you told us about the bracelet and while we were there we lost sight of Teresa. Minutes later we heard her screaming from inside the mirror maze and when we arrived she was unconscious on the floor."

"You think maybe someone attacked her?" Newt asks.

"Or maybe she saw something." Minho says.

Thomas nods, "Whatever it was we have to go back to the carnival and investigate."

Gally frowns, "What, in the middle of the day? With all those people looking at us?"

"No. We're not going when there's people."

Minho pales, "Oh no."

Thomas nods. "We're going at night. When there's no one."

"I really hate you so much." Minho says.

 

* * *

 

Vince, Sara and Dick end up going to the carnival with each of them having a photo of Alec to show the people and the personnel. Until now they didn't have much luck, so they decided to split. Vince went to the food stands and pulled out Alec's photo.

"We were wondering if you saw this guy yesterday around 7 pm."

The guy from the stand stared at the photo and raised an eyebrow. "Not really."

"No 'you didn't see him' or no 'you don't know'?"

The guy shrugs, not really caring. Vince growls.

On other side of the carnival, Sara had Alec's photo at plain sight as she showed it to the Fortune-telling lady.

"Did you happen to see this guy yesterday at night?" Sara asks.

"Honey, do you have any idea of how many people I see every day?"

On another part of the carnival, Dick was walking -having asked more than six times with no win- while looking around when something caught his attention. He followed his instinct and went to the stand where several prizes were hanging but what caught his attention was the golden anklet string with daisies hanging from the top of the stand. He's sure he's seen it before but where?

"It's pretty, isn't it?" says the owner of the stand. A bald man with a funny mustache.

Dick just nods.

"Maybe you can win it for someone special, huh?"

"Sorry, there's no one special in my life." with anything else to say he turns around and continues walking.

After two hours of being there and asking both the people and the personnel, they all meet at the entrance.

"No luck. You two?"

Dick and Sara shook their heads.

"Damn it." he sighs, "We should probably go back to the station. We won't find anything here."

With that said, the three of them exit the carnival as a pair of eyes watches from distance. A grin appears on their face.

 

* * *

 

Back at the room, Teresa has her head resting against the wall and her body is turned to the side and facing Alec. The brunet scientist has his back leaning against the wall and is staring at the ceiling.

"I'm hungry." Teresa says.

"I know."

"And thirsty."

"I know."

Teresa looks over him. "Aren't you too? Hungry and thirsty?"

"I am."

"Then why didn't you said 'Me too'?"

Alec turns his head to her, "Because I'm saving up my strength. If they come back, and I'm sure they will, I will need it to protect us."

Teresa smile tiredly, "Protect us? You should try to protect yourself. That's what's important."

"Why you say that?"

"Because that usually happens." she closes her eyes and continues, "When you're in a dangerous situation you'll try to save yourself before others. Self-preservation instinct. It's human behavior."

Alec shakes his head, "I don't believe that."

"You're a scientist, shouldn't you believe in that?"

"Yeah, but I believe that not everyone is like that. I believe there's a hero in all of us that keeps us honest; gives us strength; makes us noble... and finally allows us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady... and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams." Teresa chuckles and Alec raises an eyebrow at her, "What?"

"Nothing. I just... It seemed that you were describing Thomas."

Alec smiles, "You really have faith in him, don't you?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

Alec turns to the front, his back against the wall, "That's nice. Having friends to worry for you. I don't have any, so it sounds nice."

"I can be your friend."

Alec snorts, "Yeah, a 20-something guy befriending a 16 year old girl. I can already hear what they'll say."

"Well, screw them."

Teresa smiles at him. Alec smiles too and laughs. The door slams open and the same figures who came hours ago enter the room, this time again walking directly towards Teresa. As he sees this, Alec starts fighting against the chains, trying to put himself in the way and protect the raven girl. They're not going to take her again.

"No! No, no, leave her alone!" he continues to struggle as the figures grab Teresa's chains and are about to open them, one of them holding a syringe with a purple liquid. "Leave her! Take me, you assholes!"

They stop and stare at him for a moment before letting go of the girl and going for him instead, injecting him in the neck and making him shut his eyes and open his mouth in pain.

It's now Teresa's turn to struggle against her chains, "No! No, Alec-

"It's fine! It'll be fine!"

They unchain him and drag his numb body outside the room, leaving Teresa alone in the gloomy room.

 

* * *

 

Once the sky was dark and there was no one at the carnival -the ones who worked there must be probably in their trailers-, the pack appeared out of the nowhere, looking around and making sure no one was near. Having been sure that the coast was clear, they enter the carnival's territory. They start walking and stop at the 'meeting point'.

"There's nothing in here except closed stands and bubble gum on the floor." Aris says.

"We have to keep searching." Thomas says. "It's not like we were gonna find something as soon as we entered this place." he turns to Minho, "Want to split up?"

"Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to throw you in front of me in the face of danger if you're not here?"

Aris takes a step forward so he can explain the plan. "Ok. Thomas and I will go to look this way. Minho, you take Newt and go to the south. Gally, you don't mind going alone, do you?"

"If I don't have to go with you, I'm fine with anything."

"Asshole."

With that said, they split in pairs as Aris said. Thomas and Aris go and check somewhere while Minho and Newt go the other way, and Gally goes to the right. As they are walking between the stands, Minho turns to the blond witch. Usually he would be paired with Teresa or Gally, and Newt would be paired with Thomas. But Aris was clever enough to know that they shouldn't go together. It was also kind of awkward for Thomas and Newt to be close when they're no longer together. Minho is a couple of steps behind Newt,

"Can I ask you something?" Minho asks.

"If it has to do with Thomas and I, I would appreciate it if you don't."

"You can't avoid it forever."

Newt snorts, "Who's avoiding anything?"

Minho walks faster to get beside Newt, "You are. By not talking about it."

Newt shakes his head and avoids looking at him, "You wouldn't get it."

"Why? Because I'm not in a relationship? Well, guess what, Newt? You don't have to be in one to know about the problems in one!"

Newt turns to him, "What do you want me to tell you? That I love Thomas? I do!"

"Then why?"

"Sometimes love is not all you need! You need trust!"

"Thomas trusts you."

"No, he doesn't! If he did, we wouldn't be in this situation."

"Okay, he screwed up. But he wouldn't have gone that far if you hadn't told him out of the blue to have a break. What was that about, anyways?"

Newt keeps quiet.

"Newt, why did you ask a break to Thomas?"

Newt doesn't answer and continues walking. Minho has enough and runs towards him to grab the blond's arm and hold him still. Newt turns to him and they stare at each other, neither of them breaking contact.

 

* * *

 

At other part of the carnival, Thomas and Aris were walking while looking around the stands but the werewolf couldn't get any scent. Scratch that. He did get many scents, but none belonged to Teresa or Alec. He tried not to think much while being in a closed and desolated carnival at night. As they walked, Aris decided to talk,

"So, is it awkward?"

"What is awkward?"

"Seeing Newt. Being close to him."

"Yeah, it is."

"I know it must be. Especially for werewolves. They tend to mate for life-

"Yeah, well, it seems that not all the times."

"Did your father mated for life?"

Thomas finally stops and turns around, "What is all this conversation about? Why do you care?"

"Why don't you?"

"You think I don't care?"

"I think you do, but you don't wanna show that you do."

"Jesus." he takes three steps before turning around, "I don't wanna show that I'm hurt because when I see how calm Newt is it feels as if I'm the only one who cares! And I know it's not like that! Because he smells sad and I can see that he tries to avert his eyes whenever I turn to look at him. O-Or that he tries not to spend too much time with Minho or Teresa because they're my friends too. And I can't help but to feel like a goddamn idiot for doing what I did but there's nothing I can do now except-- Except hoping that he can be in my life even if it's not the way I want."

Aris just stares at him with a pity look on his face. Thomas doesn't want pity.

Thomas turns to another side, "Just... Let's continue searching."

Aris doesn't answer but Thomas is pretty sure that he nodded at him. They continued walking and this time they both stayed in silence.

A couple of minutes later -like 20 minutes- they all except Gally come back to the reunion point. When Minho and Newt come back Thomas can smell the anger coming from the Asian and he wonders what happened. Newt is looking at anywhere but him. Minho seems to notice something as he looks around,

"Hey, where's Gally?" Minho says.

Aris shrugs, "I don't know. He's supposed to keep an eye on me, not the other way around."

In that moment Gally appears a couple of meters away from them, walking towards them. Minho is the first to notice him,

"Oh, there you are, man. We were just going to call the police, haha." he jokes.

The sandy blond doesn't answer; he has his head bow, looking down at the ground as he makes his way towards them.

"Did you find anything? Because we didn't and I don't know if that's suspicious or not but either way--

Minho's words die in his mouth as a sword appears out of the nowhere and sticks to the ground in the place where he had been standing; he would've had been hurt if it hadn't been for him jumping back seconds before the sword had the chance to slice him. They all looked at Gally surprised and confused; it had been him who threw the sword.

Minho takes another step back, a hand on his chest, "What the fuck?!"

Thomas takes a step forward, "Gally, what the hell-

Gally walks towards the sword and he raises it again, and this time they all see as Gally swings it as he stares at them.

What was wrong with Gally?

 

* * *

 

When Alec comes around, he realizes that he's not back at the room with Teresa. He's sitting on something like a dentist chair. Oh right. They took him somewhere else. But where exactly? And why? He tries to open his eyes but they feel heavy. Was he drugged? Again? But how did that happ-

He hears a metallic noise and stops thinking. Even if he could move his hands they were strapped to the chair; he could feel the straps on his wrists. He feels his chest like it had a heavy load on top of it. The same metallic noise is heard again and he now knows for sure that he isn't alone in this room.

"What do you want?" he asks aloud, "Who is there?"

He tries to keep his eyes open. Moving his head to where slight pain is coming, he sees two tubes stuck inside his arm and, yes, that was his blood. Why where they draining his blood?

Alec closes his eyes and when he opens them again the tubes are gone. Did he pass out? For how long? He tries to open his eyes again and this time he succeed but it wasn't as if there was anything to look at. The room was mostly empty and as far as he could move his eyes, he saw the chair he was strapped to and then he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Finally, one of the hooded figures that attacked him and Teresa approaches him, their face obscured by the hood.

Alec tries to keep his eyes open to stare at the hooded person who didn't move. For a moment he thinks he sees a skull under the hood but he must be still dizzy.

"What do you want with me? What do you want with Teresa?"

Even if he couldn't see their face, he knew they were staring down at him. The feeling made his blood run cold.

"Why are we here?"

The hooded person didn't say anything. They just took a syringe out from behind their back and before Alec can do anything, the needle goes through his neck again and the world goes black.

 

* * *

 

_"Get down!"_

They all get to the ground as the big sword is thrown at them and ends stuck in a tree not far from them. Thomas turns and looks as Gally invokes another sword and prepares to attack again. He aims for Thomas one more time. Thomas manages to block the sword attack and he and Gally are standing in front of each other, the sword being stopped by Thomas' clawed hands.

"What's with you, man?!" he yells but the other doesn't answer. It seems that it's hard for him; he's gritting his teeth.

"I don't know!" yelled Thomas back. "Aris!" the witch turned to him, "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know! He's never acted like this!"

Gally throws another sword at where Minho and Newt were, making them run to the other side but just as they did, another sword was thrown at them. Newt raised his hands and stopped the sword centimeters away from his face. Gally started throwing small knifes at him as he ran towards him, with Newt using his magic to throw them away from him. Suddenly he was standing in front of the witch and punched him over the face, knocking him to the ground. Thomas saw that and he growled, fangs coming out. Newt fell to the ground and he turned to look at Gally as he raised his sword but he seemed to stop for a moment. Newt frowned at this. As he stood still, Thomas ran and pushed him to the ground. They fell and Thomas quickly separated himself from Gally and made his way to where Newt was, still on the ground, and he stood up in front of him in a protective mode. It doesn't matter that they're not longer together, but Newt was still part of his pack.

As Gally slowly stands up to his feet, so does Newt and Aris and Minho approach him and Thomas, staying at a safe distance. The tall sandy blond is standing on his feet now, looking directly at them but he doesn't move to attack. He went to open his mouth but nothing came out. The pack frowned.

Slowly raising his hand holding a medium-sized sword, Gally brought it to his other hand and slowly cut his palm open, the pack watching at the blood pouring out of his palm. What was he doing? He then brings his bloodied hand to somewhere above his back and it seems to touch something as he draws it to the bottom until the blood stays there, suspended, like if something was there. The blood stains whatever it is and suddenly the pack can see strings appearing.

Strings. Gally had showed them the strings with his blood.

"Strings?" Minho asks confused.

They again move to avoid another attack of the sword. As they get up, Aris frowns for a moment as he thinks,

"A puppeteer." he mutters.

"What?" Thomas asks.

"That's it! He's being controlled by a puppeteer! That's why he's acting so weird! It's not him!"

"With strings?"

"We have to cut those strings to break him off the puppeteer's control. It's the only way."

Thomas looks at the front at Gally tries to fight his arm to NOT move. He really doesn't want to attack them. He's fighting this. Thomas nods.

He takes his claws out and runs towards Gally. He waits for him to use the sword and when he uses it, he manages to grab his arm holding the sword. His other hand tries to claw at the strings but Gally uses his other free hand and intercepts his. As they hold each other, Aris makes a run to the strings with his hand surrounded in green flames. Gally watches him and in a swift move he twists and throws Thomas away in time to kneel as Aris flings at him. He grabs Aris' hand to stop his attack mid-air and then proceeds to grab him by the throat and lift him until his feet are no longer touching the ground. Aris brought both hands to wrap around the tall blond's wrists but he didn't try to make him let go. He didn't use his magic either. He just held him there.

"T-thomas, now!" he manages to choke out.

As soon as he says that, Thomas appears beside them holding the discarded sword and with a strong swift he brings it down, cutting the strings in a single move. The strings fall to the ground like noodles at the same time Gally releases his grip on Aris. Thomas takes a step back as Gally falls to his knees while violently coughing. Suddenly it's like the air is easier to breathe in. Throwing the sword to the ground, Thomas approaches the sandy blond.

"Are you alright?"

Gally finally stops coughing and looks up at him, "Y-yeah... Thanks," he stands up.

He sees Aris still on the ground where he fell once Gally let go of him, so the tall blond approaches him and he offers his hand to Aris, which he accepts. But as the tall guy is pulling the other onto his feet, he realizes he offered his wounded hand as blood stains Aris' hand.

The lighter brunet witch notices it too but instead of letting go their joined hands start shinning as Aris' magic heals his wound. Once it stops shinning, Gally looks at his healed palm and then looks at Aris,

"Thanks."

The witch nods at him.

And they turn to Thomas and Newt as they approach them. As they all are talking, Minho approaches one of the pieces of the remaining strings on the ground and he kneels in front of them, reaching out his hand to grab one. As soon as his hand makes contact with the strings, his eyes turn white as he has a vision. But it's not like he's seeing something that's going to happen... It's....

Thomas notices the stiffness on his friend, so he approaches him, "Minho?" but his friend doesn't answer back. The rest of the pack notices it and they turn to them. "Minho, what's wrong?"

Still kneeling on the ground, Minho turns his torso to look at Thomas and says

"I know where Teresa and Alec are."

 

* * *

 

The police made their way to the abandoned Bowling Alley, Vince and Dick at the front, all of them wearing bulletproof vests and holding guns. Thomas had practically ran to the station to tell Vince that although he couldn't answer how, they knew where Teresa and Alec were. Vince didn't loose time and went for backups. The two males carefully walk through the empty place where the lanes were but that's not where they were going. They pointed at the other policemen to wait there as they went to check the basement. Nodding at each other, Vince and Dick made their way to the bottom of the alley. There was a hallway that lead to different rooms but besides from that there was another stairs that lead to another below level.

Inside the room, Teresa has her head resting against the cold walls and hands resting over her lap. Alec wasn't back yet and she was worried. So freaking worried. Suddenly Teresa jolted since the door started to shake as if trying to be open. Fear spread through her whole body as the sudden movements. They were back. Oh no. The door gave in and it opened a second later to reveal Vince and Dick holding their guns and verifying the room. Vince saw the raven girl on the floor chained to the wall.

"Teresa!"

Vince approaches her as Dick looks around the room, making sure there was no one else there. He tugs at the chains to loosen them up; one's the room is secured, the blond agent approaches them,

"Where's Alec?" he asks.

"They took him. I-I don't know where..." the chains break and Teresa is free.

"Vince, take her."

The older man nods and helps the girl stand up on her feet only to carry her and get her out of the room. Dick, gun still on hand, turns around and exits the room too, continuing the long hall.

Alone in the room, Alec is still sitting on the chair and is starting to get consciousness back. Not being able to fully open his eyes, he barely manages to realize he's alone. One hand was free, his kidnappers must had left it accidentally like that, but he felt too weak and dizzy to attempt to take the other cuff off, so he just stayed there. He looks at the light illuminating the room and wonders how much time he has before the light turns off and he's left alone in the dark. He does react at the sound of the knob trying to be opened. When it's clear the knob won't work, the doors are slammed a few times as if someone was trying to enter... but who? Alec was pretty sure the clowns had left and they weren't going to come back. With one final slam the door opens and a blurry figure enters the room: Dick. He doesn't put his gun down until he's secured the whole room, eyes sharp. Once he's sure there's no one there, he puts his gun away and quickly approaches Alec.

"Alec," he brings both hands to cup his face, the brunet male still staring at him as if trying to decide if he's real or not. "It's fine. We're getting you out of here, okay?"

The brunet shakes his head, "Y-you can't be here. It's too dangerous... you--

"Alec," Dick cuts him, looking serious at him, "Please shut up and let me save your life."

Alec stares at him without moving before a relieved smile appears on his face, his eyes shining as he nods at the blond man. Un-cuffing his hand, Dick helps him get on his feet and putting his arm over his shoulder, he helps the brunet to stand up. With his free hand he takes his gun out again just in case and they both make their way to the door and out of that place.

 

* * *

 

Outside of the Bowling Alley two ambulances were parked while attending the two rescued. Police cars were also there and deputies were securing the area.

Teresa was sitting over one ambulance with her parents at her side the whole time as the paramedic checked her. She had bandages on her wrists and ankles, but nothing else seemed to be hurt. Her mom kissed her temple, and her father hugged her sideways, bringing both women closer to him.

Thomas and the pack were watching them from afar; Thomas saw as the paramedic approached Vince and talk to him. Vince nodded and the paramedic left. The older man turned around and went to Thomas' side,

"Is she okay?" is the first that the brunet asks.

"Yeah, the paramedic said she was only bruised. She'll be ready to go back to her parents in a few."

Thomas as well as the rest of them let out a sigh of relief.

"And Alec?"

"He's fine too. Also bruised but he'll survive." with that, Vince turns around and goes back to talk to other deputies.

On the other ambulance, Alec was also sitting down on the back part while the paramedic checked on him. Dick was standing beside him, arms crossed over his chest. Once the paramedic said he was fine, she moved away.

"I told you I'm fine." the brunet said.

"I still think you should go to the hospital."

"I'm fine. I just wanna go pick some stuff from the station and then go to my place to sleep."

Still tangled in her parent's arms, Teresa saw the guys at distance and she smiled at their direction and mouthed 'Thank you' with teary eyes. Thomas nodded back. She didn't have to thank them. Of course they would try to bring her back.

Gally and Aris are standing kind of separated from the pack. Gally wasn't exactly looking at something, but Aris was. He was looking at Alec as he assured Dick that he was fine. Aris' eyes fall over the white patch over his neck and something clicks in his brain, eyes wide with realization. Gally, as if having sensed something was up, turned to look at him as Aris opened his mouth and said

"I think I know what he is."

 

* * *

 

At the sheriff's station over Alec's lab the tall brunet scientist is putting some stuff inside a red/white gym bag when Thomas and Aris appear at the entrance of the lab. Although Aris didn't told Thomas what Alec was, he told him that he was definitely something. Before accusing anyone -especially someone who just got recued after being kidnapped- Thomas wanted to make sure that it was true. He wanted to ask Alec himself. Alec notices the two teens standing at the entrance and offers a tired smile,

Thomas is the first to speak as they get closer, "Hey... How are you? I mean, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. How's Teresa?"

"She's fine too. She's tough."

Alec smiles and turns around, moving some papers from his desk. Thomas just watches his moves and doesn't say anything. He doesn't know what to say. Alec seems to notice, because he turns to look at him and offers him a soft smile.

"What? Is something wrong?"

 _'No, just something stupid.'_ wanted to say Thomas. "Actually there is."

The scientist's smile falls. Thomas licks his lips, "You see... I, uh, I don't know how to say this. Well, it's actually _'ask'_ , but... Umm,"

He could've continued babbling like that for at least ten minutes but he's interrupted by Aris, who rolls his eyes as he says "Oh for the love of— He's a vampire, you nimrod."

Everything stays in silence. Thomas stared at Aris with wide eyes before turning around to look back at Alec. The young man didn't move from his place, his eyes lingering over the papers on his desk, and his fingers barely touching them. That's not the reaction you have when someone accuses you of being a vampire. You should react offended or tell them that vampires aren't real and stuff like that, but Alec didn't do either. Wait. If he's not freaking out about being accused of something so ridicule then...

Alec is a vampire?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know that not many of you like vampires *coughthankyoutwilightcoughcough* but I can assure you (almost promise) that these vampires aren't like that ones.  
> Phew, I was waiting the entire week to post this chapter (since Saturday).


	7. After 7:15 P.M.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I didn't uploaded this chapter on Friday or Saturday! I had some family issues and couldn't do anything. But now everyhting's better and I could finally upload the chapter. I hope you aren't mad, but if you are then I'm sorry and I really hope you enjoy the chapter :)

Everything fell in silence. Neither of them had moved from their place since Aris spoke. Thomas was still trying to process his words and the scene happening right now.

"What- what do you mean a vampire?" he asks.

It couldn't be. Aris must be wrong. Alec can't be a... _He can't!_ This guy had helped him with his homework so many times. Had stayed with him when he was left alone to wait for Vince at the station. Hell, he even once picked him up from school when he had felt ill and neither Vince or Mary could go because of work.

Alec sighs, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "He means bloodsuckers, nightstalkers, pulse-challenged, biters, creatures of the night--

Thomas holds his hands up, "Stop, stop! I get it. What I meant was..." he turns to the lighter brunet witch, "Wha-what? How? If he were a vampire I would have known. I mean, wouldn't I be able to catch his scent or something?"

"He's wearing a scent patch."

"A what?"

"It's used to mask your scent from anything that could get a whiff of your scent and know what are you. In his case, vampire. Not even the most trained dog or apt supernatural creature could detect his scent."

Alec brought a hand to his neck were the skin colored patch was and he ripped it off slowly. As soon as the patch is gone, an aroma fills Thomas' nose, so he takes a deep breathing and... there it is, the scent! It's like... withered flowers.

_Oh._

Alec nods at him when he sees the way Thomas' eyes change once he gets his scent, "Yeah, that." he puts the patch on again, "Now you know why I have to wear this."

"You said it was a nicotine patch."

Alec chuckles, "I've never smoke in my entire life, Thomas."

"And how much is _'your entire life'_ exactly?"

"You did not just ask a vampire about their age." said Aris shaking his head.

"A _vampire_..." he repeats the word as if trying to remember it, "It makes sense. That's why you can't be out when the sun is up!" he then thinks about something and frowns, "Wait. But you sometimes come out to a crime scene when the sun is up. I've seen you."

"You use a potion, don't you?" says Aris.

Alec nods. "Yeah. If I have to go out or an emergency, I take a potion that allows me to be in the sun without bursting in flames for a few hours."

"If that's it, then why didn't you use your strength or superspeed to escape? You have that, right?"

"Because when you take that potion it also neutralizes your supernatural abilities. Which means no strength, no superspeed, and no worries about the sun."

"So you're basically like a human?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"And what about the photo that Vince had?"

"Taken when I was under the potion's effect."

"Can you bleed?"

"Sure, but it's nothing."

"Your reflection?"

"Disappears in any mirror."

"Do you fly?"

"Okay, now it's gotten offensive."

Thomas flinches, "Sorry."

Now it's Aris' time to ask. "Does anyone know?"

Alec shakes his head, "No. It's nothing personal, but I didn't want anyone to know."

After all the conversation they've had, Thomas' brain is barely catching up with him right now. "Wait. Do you know about..." he moves his eyes to look at Aris. About us. About me.

"Yes. It's not hard to tell. Werewolves have a... distinct smell." he says scrunching his nose. Like it's a bad odor or something. Maybe it is. "Do you want to know something else? Feel free to ask."

Thomas opens his mouth but then thinks about it. He feels kind of bad for asking too many questions but he does have many questions. Should he ask them? Alec did said he could ask.

"Do you eat? I mean, can you even eat or...?"

"Physically I can eat the food, but I'm not hungry for it. If I have to, I'll eat it; if not then no."

Thomas frowns, "Then what do you eat?"

"Isn't that obvious, Thomas?" says Aris, "He drinks blood."

Color kind of drains from Thomas' face. Wow. This was too much. Too much in a single night.

"So blood, huh? H-how do you get the blood? Please tell me you don't get it from the dead bodies you examine because that'll be some sick shit, man."

Alec chuckles, giving him a smile, "No, no. That would be unprofessional and disgusting. Have you seen the people I sometimes get? Ugh!"

Thomas chuckles too. Alec looks at the clock over the wall,

"I should better go. Dick is going to give me a ride home and he's waiting for me to pick up some stuff." he says as he grabs the gym bag. Thomas nods.

"Yeah, sure. Y-you go."

Thomas moves aside to let Alec pass and walk to the entrance of the lab. As the other walks past him, Thomas' brain starts working the double. He can't help but to think if he should watch Alec. Is he dangerous? Could he be? Before exiting the lab, the scientist stops and turns around,

"Oh, and Thomas?" the werewolf turns, "Thanks for finding us."

Every doubt and negative thought Thomas had disappeared as soon as he heard those words. Those grateful words. How could he think different of Alec because he now is a vampire. Well, he was always a vampire, but to Thomas' eyes no. Thomas nods at him and the scientist nods at them before leaving. Aris approaches Thomas,

"You okay?"

"Yeah... Let's go."

 

* * *

 

The next day at school Thomas was over the lockers, taking some books out when the bell rang. He closed his locker and was walking towards his class when Aris appeared out of thin air and approached him.

"Thomas, come on." he said nodding to the end of the hallways.

Thomas points at the classroom, "I have Econ now."

"No, you don't." and Aris grabs his arm and drags him away from his classroom to lead him to another classroom. They enter the empty classroom only to find the pack -except for Teresa- waiting for them.

"This feels like an intervention." he looks at Aris, "You could've told me we needed to meet." he turns back to the others, "Is something wrong? Is everyone alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine." says Minho.

"And Teresa?"

"She's at home. Her mom wanted her to rest one more day."

"We're here to talk about yesterday." says Gally.

Thomas frowns, "What about- Do you mean Alec? You-" he turns to Aris, "You told them?"

"Told us what?"

Thomas sighs, "Alec's a vampire."

They all -except Thomas and Aris- open their eyes wide in surprise.

"He's a what?" repeats Minho. "For real?"

"That's not what you meant?" asks Thomas.

"No," says Gally, "We meant as in the carnival related."

"Oh. That makes more sense. Ok. The strings thing-

"The puppeteer." corrects Aris.

"Right, the puppeteer. What does that even mean?"

"It means... that there is something supernatural related going on."

"I knew it!" yells Minho. He stops, "Wait, that's bad."

Gally gives him a look, "No shit, Sherlock."

"Okay, we'll figure it out once school is over. Come on, Min. Let's go to Econ." says Thomas as he starts to go to the door, ready to open it and leave when he turns back and sees that his best friend hasn't moved. "Min?"

"There's still one thing that's been bothering me all night." he looks at his best friend, "How did I know where Alec and Teresa were? I mean, it was like a vision but... different."

Aris is the one to answer, "Psychometry -It means you obtain information about a person or object, usually by touching or concentrating on the object or a related object."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's one of the abilities of a seer."

"So he doesn't only can see the future?" asks Newt.

"Exactly."

"I gotta read more about that." says Minho.

"Ok. After classes you and I go to pick Teresa up and we meet you guys back at the mansion."

The others nod at the werewolf.

 

* * *

 

At the sheriff's station Alec was talking to the sheriff over his office about everything he knew about his kidnapping. He was sitting on the chair in front of the sheriff's desk and he felt like a kid at the principal's office. The sheriff did look like a principal, tho.

"Anything else?" asked the older man.

Alec stays quiet for a moment, "The ones who took us. They were dressed as clowns but..." he frowns, "It's not right. They... they were big and strong, and it seemed like they were using some kind of costume. Then they were wearing hoodies and I couldn't see their faces."

"Ok. We're still trying to find something at the bowling alley but it seems that the place is clean."

"Oh, trust me, it's not clean." he notices the look on the older man's face, "Oh... You meant clues..."

"Montgomery."

"Yes, sir?"

"Get the hell out of my office."

Alec doesn't say anything else; he stands up and quickly gets out of the office. The door closes behind him and he starts walking towards the exit but on his way he feels someone staring at him. He turns around but there's no one there. A shadow moves behind him and he turns around quickly, but just sees another shadow moving to the other side. His eyes move from one side to another. He's conscious that he's standing in the middle of the station, looking to one side to the other like a deer caught in headlights. A pair of hands appears on his shoulders and startled he turns to one female deputy looking worriedly at him.

"Are you alright?" she asks.

"...Yeah. Just need to go home."

The deputy removes her hands and leaves Alec continue his way towards the door. He hurries to the exit and leaves the sheriff's station. Just as the female deputy goes to sit on her desk, Dick comes back from the bathroom and he looks at the sheriff's office and frowns when he doesn't see Alec there. He looks around and then at the female deputy at her desk; he approaches her.

"Where's Alec?"

She points at the door, "He just left."

Dick turns towards the door and stares at it. But he doesn't go through the door.

 

* * *

 

After school, Thomas and Minho went to Thomas' house to leave their backpacks and retrieve Thomas' phone from his bedroom that he forgot to bring to school.

"It'll be just a minute." says Thomas as he goes upstairs while Minho waits for him over the living room.

"Okay."

Minho turns around as he waits for his best friend, walking towards the dining room when the sound of keys is heard. The main door opens and for a moment Minho expects it to be Mary or even Vince but it's Thomas' dad who comes through the door. The two of them stare at each other and Minho's face suddenly morphs into one with anger. His conversation with Newt from last night suddenly hits him back. The older man nods at him, acknowledging him as he closes the door.

"Minho."

"Mr. Hawthorne."

Minho knew that Thomas' dad could smell the anger radiating from him. The taller man walked towards the kitchen and as he was about to open the fridge he felt a pair of eyes still on him. He raised an eyebrow as he turned to Minho,

"Is something wrong?"

"I don't know. You tell me."

His voice tone also made it very clear he was mad. Steve frowned but decided to ignore it; he took out the water jar and grabbed a glass to pour some water but Minho was still glaring at him.

"Did you lose something?" asked the man.

 _'My respect for you.'_ Minho wanted to say. "Nope. Just waiting for Thomas."

The brown haired man poured the water and as he took a sip from it, he could still smell Minho's anger. He also saw as the Asian male made his left hand a fist and his knuckles cracked. Steve sighed and put the glass down on the table,

"Okay. This is getting absurd. Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"I know."

Steve frowned.

"I know what you told Newt."

Steve's whole posture changed. The two males were now staring at each other, neither moving or saying anything. They were interrupted, however, by Thomas coming down the stairs. He stops as he sees his dad,

"Dad. Hey,"

Steve puts on another face, but Minho doesn't bother. He's angry and he's not going to hide it.

Thomas saw his best friend's face and the tense atmosphere. "...Is something wrong?"

"No. Not at all." says Steve, "I was just asking what you two were doing later."

"We're going to Aris' house."

"Okay. I'll see you for dinner later?"

"Yeah." he nods at his best friend, "Come on, Min."

Minho doesn't say anything. He follows after his friend. Thomas' dad stays over the dining room, watching them leave.

 

* * *

 

At Teresa's house, the raven girl was over her bedroom, lying on her bed as she stared at the ceiling. It had been a long morning without going to school, and Teresa just lied in her bed. She closed her eyes and again saw those hooded figures and heard that horrible sound. She clenched her eyes tighter as she remembered the sound and the voice, when a knock on her door startled her and brought her out of her thoughts. She quickly sat up as the door opened, revealing Minho.

"Hey." he bows, "We've come to escort you to a lovely mansion to gather with our friends."

Teresa smiles, "Is it elegant or casual?"

"Casual. Just put on some pants."

They went to Aris and Gally's mansion. The other three were already there, waiting for them. They were over the dining room, all three standing.

Aris lets out an exaggerated sigh, "Finally you're here. I thought you would never come."

"Sorry, we had to go to my house first." says Thomas. "Found my dad, and then went for Teresa."

Thomas doesn't misses the way Newt sends a look at Minho, who was actually looking at him. Weird.

"Where were we?" asks Aris to Gally.

"We were talking about the kidnapping."

"Okay. If they kidnapped Alec because he was a vampire, then why did they took Teresa?" asks Newt.

Minho shrugs, "Maybe they thought she was supernatural too."

"But she's not."

As they spoke, Teresa started remembering as she was being held in that cold room. In that chair. As the world was moving so slowly and then too quick. A voice calling to her. The voice was from a male but she couldn't recognize it. What was important is what the voice said.

 _"It's amazing."_ she repeats what the voice said.

They all turn to her after she spoke.

"What?" asks Aris.

"While I was held in another room away from Alec, a voice talked to me. I didn't remember until now. He actually didn't say much; he just said _'It's amazing. A banshee, right before my eyes.'_ "

Although they all are confused, Aris is the only one to have a different reacting.

"That's the word he used? _'Banshee'_?"

Teresa nods.

Aris turns around as if he was thinking about something, frowning a little when Minho decides to ask

"What's a banshee?"

"In Irish mythology a banshee was a female spirit who uses her scream/wail to signal when a violent death is about to occur. They are also known as Wailing Woman."

"So they predict death?" asks Newt.

"Banshees cannot only predict death; they can identify where death occurred, and sense someone's death becoming aware of their passing away just by _'feeling'_ it."

Thomas frowns. " _'Feeling it'_?"

"It's a supernatural thing."

"Now everything makes sense." says Minho under his breath, but everyone heard him. "I mean, all the signs where there: the screaming, the 'voices' she heard, and she found numerous dead bodies or people who were about to die."

Thomas blinks a few times, "You're right,"

"Welcome to the Beacon Hills Supernatural Creature Club, Teresa."

 _"Minho!"_ Thomas reproaches his best friend.

"What?! I'm saying it as a good thing!"

The raven girl smiles at their fighting.

"So what do we do now?" asks Gally.

"Everything seems to lead to the carnival, so that's where we're going."

Minho frowns, "Um, you remember what happened the last time we went there? This guy almost made us human skewers!" he says pointing at Gally.

"But this time we're not going when it's closed. We're going while there's people."

Teresa opens her mouth, "Um, I'm not sure I'll be able to go there again. It's just..." she closes her eyes and sees flashes of what happened while she was locked up. "I can't."

"It's okay, Teresa. You'll stay in the car in case something happens. The rest of us will go to the carnival and investigate."

Minho raises a hand, "I want to stay in the car too." Teresa chuckles.

Thomas grins. He looks at them, "Get your stuff ready. We're going in an hour."

 

* * *

 

At the station, Dick was reading some files as he walked towards the sheriff's office when he saw Alec over the cafeteria. He stopped and frowned for a moment before going towards there. The brunet was putting something inside his satchel, his back at the blond man.

"Hey," the brunet turned around, "I thought Miranda said you left."

"Yeah, but I forgot something. Don't worry, I won't stay long."

Alec turned back to his satchel but instead saw a dirty floor. Like the one at the bowling alley. He stilled, and Dick noticed it.

"You're ok?"

Alec raised his hand slowly and saw chains around them. Good thing his heart couldn't beat right now because he was sure if it did, Dick would be able to hear it. He closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and when he opened them again the chains were gone, and the floor was the one at the station. He felt a hand on his shoulder,

"Hey. You can talk to me."

Alec moved so the hand wasn't on his shoulder anymore. He grabbed his satchel and was about to exit the cafeteria when the blond man turned towards him,

"Alec, please tell me-

"I feel alone." said the brunet once he stopped and turned around, facing the other man.

Dick stops too, looking at him. The brunet scientist looked like a kicked puppy.

"I mean, I shouldn't. I have a job, a house, good friends but... I still feel alone. Am I crazy?"

"No, you're not. It's common to feel that way."

"Then why do I still feel bad?"

The blond man doesn't know what to say. Alec grimaces and turns around to leave, and Dick doesn't stop him this time.

 

* * *

 

The pack goes to the carnival. Currently they were inside Gally's truck, each taking a walkie-talkie with them.

"Ok. If you think something might go wrong, use them. We'll meet at the entrance, okay?" says Thomas. "Teresa, if you and Minho think you're in danger, just call us, okay? We'll be right back here."

The two ravens nod.

"Ok. Now, let's get going." the doors open and Gally, Aris and Newt are getting out but before Thomas can get out, a hand grabs his shoulder, stopping him.

"Thomas!"

The brunet turns around to his best friend.

"Be careful."

Thomas nods. With that said, he turns back and walks towards the other three that are entering the carnival. Teresa and Minho watch them enter and disappear into the crowd.

Thomas, Gally, Aris and Newt decided to separate to cover more of the carnival. Thomas is currently walking towards where the stand of the love potion was supposed to be but there wasn't anything. Again. He curses under his breath. He's so sure it was here! Maybe he won't find it again.

Thomas continues walking but he can't get any suspicious scent. What is he even looking? What could probably be a suspicious scent? Blood? Many people get hurt in the carnival, whether a small cut or not. Fear? He can tell that just by looking at the people about to get into the rollercoaster. So what is he looking for? As he's thinking while not watching where he's walking, he almost collided with someone if not because they spoke first, with a happy voice,

"Hello, hello! Enter the Mirror Maze! You'll come face-to-face with your cute mug over and over as you attempt to find your way out!"

Thomas looks at the mirror house to his right and something comes to his mind.

 _'This is the place where we found Teresa unconscious before she disappeared.'_ thinks Thomas.

Thomas nods at the girl over the entrance and he pays to enter. He takes a step inside and now alone he takes his claws out, in case he needs them.

 

* * *

 

Over his house, Alec was slumped over his bed in just a black shirt and grey long pants. He was just staring at the closed door of his room and nothing else. He didn't felt like doing anything. Also he had just taken the potion so right now he was without his strength and agility. Which means that if someone were to enter his house and attack him, he would probably be defenseless. He felt a chill go down his back when he heard his doorbell ring. He frowns. He normally doesn't have visits unless it's from work. And if it's from work, they would usually call first.

Getting up from his bed with messy hair, he drags his body through the hallway and towards the door. Slowly -almost with fear- he opens the door to find to his surprise Dick wearing a green hoodie, a grey shirt underneath and black pants. Too casual for Mr. Suits. There was also what seemed to be a gym bag on the floor next to his feet. Dick's eyes move to the **'I LOVE YOU'** in yellow on the front of Alec's shirt.

"Nice shirt."

"Thanks. Star Wars reference."

"Oh. And there's an answer to that, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't have the other part. Both talking about the shirt and the person."

"That's a shame."

They both stay in silence after that. After almost a minute of complete silence, Dick clears his throat but it's Alec who beats him, speaking first,

"To what do I own the pleasure?"

"I came to see how you were doing."

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. Have you been eating?"

 _'No, because every time I want to take a sip from the cool blood I have in the fridge I just see those tube inside my arms, draining my own blood.'_ thinks Alec but he just shakes his head, "I'm not that hungry. Sorry you wasted your time coming here."

He goes to move to close the door but then he sees something move quickly behind Dick's back and suddenly he sees a flashback of the hooded figures and the skull underneath, the tubes in his arms, the syringe going through his skin. He starts trembling, clutching at the doorframe with wide eyes. Dick raises both hands and they're over his shoulders, trying to calm him.

"Are you alright?"

But the brunet doesn't seem to be hearing him, he just continues repeating something under his breath.

_"...should... paid attention... should..."_

"What?"

"I should've been paying more attention. You always tell me to be more aware of my surroundings."

"Hey, no," the blond said, meeting Alec's eyes. "That's out in the field. You were at home, where you were supposed to be safe. Don't think it's your fault because it isn't." he takes a moment to compose himself before he continues, "Anyways, I kept thinking about it and I realized you were right... in the part that you felt alone and that. But you won't have to be alone anymore."

Alec seems to be confused, judging by the look he gives Dick as the blond goes to kneel on the ground and opens the gym bag he brought.

"So that's why I got you this."

Alec's eyes shine brighter and a smile appears on his lips as he looks at the puffy cat with a red collar with a tag -no name on it yet- that Dick was getting out of the bag, standing back on his feet as he held the cat on his arms. The brunet smiled at the cat, holding a hand to pet it and then looked at the blond man with a questioning look.

"I made sure to get a kind of big one at the shelter so it looks more intimidating."

Alec keeps petting the cat, "How long was he in there for?"

"...A while."

The cat let out a mix between a growl and hiss with his ears pulled back, pupils very constricted ([x](http://media.tumblr.com/1470f8a80b7e6d5c37d8ead1517a5859/tumblr_inline_ml4qgkwg7Q1qz4rgp.gif)). Yep, 'a while' seemed most likely. But now the cat wouldn't be alone anymore and neither would Alec. The scientist grabbed the cat so he was now holding him, caressing his head as the animal purred at the soft contact.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. You didn't have to but- Thanks."

The strong blond man continues to look at Alec as he pets the cat's head.

 

* * *

 

At the truck, Minho and Teresa were sitting quietly while waiting for any news from the rest of the pack. Teresa was looking through the window while the Asian male playing with his hands.

"...So, a banshee, huh?"

"Wow. It took you exactly," she looks to the clock at the radio, "10 minutes to ask me that."

" _What?!_ I wanted to start a conversation! There's not much we can do in here."

"We could read a book." she says pointing at the book between the seats.

"I'm not that bored yet." Teresa rolls her eyes, "Besides, it's not like it's a bad thing, you know. Being a banshee and that stuff."

"Yeah, great. It means I'm not crazy; I'm just a girl who can predict death while screaming."

"You can save lives."

"Aris didn't say that."

"Well, Aris didn't say I could find people by touching personal objects either, but I can." he shrugs, "Who knows, maybe you can predict death before it happens and save someone." he nudges her, "Doesn't it sound nice?"

Teresa manages to smile, "I guess so."

"Besides, it's not like I'm that useful too."

"That's not true. You found us."

"Yeah, by pure luck."

Teresa shakes her head, looking at him, "I don't believe that. You're telling me that I can do something good with my powers and here you are, kicking yourself to the ground."

"So you're saying that if I stop saying bad things about my abilities you'll do the same?"

"Yes."

Teresa stops for a moment after she realizes what he's just done. Minho grins.

"You scum." she says with a smile as she hits his shoulder, making him chuckle. "Thank you."

"Anytime."

Teresa continues to smile for a few more until she hears something coming from outside. Music. Not the carnival music. A special music... A familiar tune. Minho notices the way she stood still and that she's staring at the window.

"What is it?"

"It's that melody!" she quickly opens the door and runs out of the truck.

"Teresa, wait!" Minho quickly follows behind her.

 

* * *

 

Gally was looking around as he got closer to the carousel, which was coming to a stop from the ride. The people were coming off and new ones were climbing onto it. Nothing seemed to be weird from where Gally was standing. He heard the mechanical sound behind him and saw the carousel. Looking around, he quickly climbs onto the carousel, standing on the platform as the machine starts working around. It starts moving slowly like it should and the kids in them start giggling happily. Flashes of light from the other stands and games is all what Gally can see from where he is. Well, there's also pole standing beside the carousel, taking pictures of their children and waving at them. There were couples walking hand in hand, looking happy as the chatted about something. Then he saw a strawberry blonde woman holding a blond kid in her arms. The woman looked like his mom.

Gally felt something in his chest as he tried to look more of them but the carousel continued its course. When it reached the same spot again the woman and kid were gone, no signs of them.

**_"They looked happy, didn't they?"_ **

A voice says and Gally turns around but there's no one there. Just him on the platform, surrounded by kids on the horses or the seats.

**_"You can be happy too."_ **

Gally turned to the other side but there wasn't anyone there either. What was going on?

**_"I can give you happiness, if that's what you want."_ **

Gally frowns.

**_"But you must give me something in return."_ **

Suddenly Gally starts feeling so dizzy that he has to grab onto one of the poles. Joyful laughs fill his ears and he shakes his head to shake off the dizziness. The carousel continues going around. Gally tries to advance but he can't; he blinks a few times but it's like something's holding him in his place. The music of the carousel is ringing too loud in his head and for a moment he feels... lighter.

"What is it?" he asks to the voice. His body feels made of paper and he's blowing by the wind, "What do you want?"

It stays silent for a moment before the same voice but this time with more malice answers,

**_"Your life."_ **

Gally's eyes opened wide as soon as he feels something grabbing him by the waist and pulling him out of the carousel, sending him to the hard ground. He huffs at the pain and looks up to see Aris looking down at him. So he did that.

A frown appears on Gally's face, "What are you doing?!"

"Saving your life! You were about to exchange your life for _'eternal happiness'_!"

Gally frowns in confusion. What?

 

* * *

 

Thomas continues looking around inside the mirror maze but nothing. Nothing seems to be giving off that vibe. Maybe Teresa saw or heard something because of her banshee abilities? That could explain why he can't find anything. He goes to turn around and find the exit when he sees a man with his back at him. Thomas frowns. He didn't hear or smelled anyone coming into the maze. The figure stayed still and Thomas identified him,

"Dad?"

He calls out for his dad, and the man turns around to reveal his dad. What was he doing at the carnival?

Thomas takes a step forward, "Dad, what-

"Don't you take another step forward."

Thomas stops in his tracks, his left foot an inch from touching the floor. Why did his dad used that tone? He seemed angry. Why was he angry? Still looking at his dad, Thomas takes a couple of steps backwards and when he turns around he finds Newt standing opposite to him, his back at him. He blinks a few times,

"Newt."

The blond turns around and he's looking at Thomas with... hatred?

"I'm so glad we're no longer together."

Thomas feels as if someone had just hit him over the stomach with a hammer. He stays still, looking at the blond witch. He glances over his shoulder and his dad is gone.

"How could I've been with someone like you."

Thomas wants to take a step towards him but he starts feeling weak. Like, really really weak. Like the strength on his body is being sucked out.

"With a monster like you."

A pair of hands appear behind him, reaching out to grab him but Thomas doesn't see them.

"No..."

Newt is still looking at him, "Why didn't I break up with you sooner?"

Thomas shakes his head, "No."

"I never even loved you."

"STOP IT!"

He swings his hand to the back and brings it forward to smash it against one of the mirrors, breaking it in pieces as the world turned black.

When Thomas comes around he slowly opens his eyes and finds himself on the floor of the mirror maze but he's not alone. His head is resting over Newt's lap. The blond witch is looking down at him and a relieved smile appears on his face. Thomas opens his mouth,

"Am I in heaven?"

"No."

"Then I must be in hell... Because that means I'm no longer together with you."

Newt grimaces.

Not wanting to move from Newt's lap, and wanting to know in how much time Newt would want him to get up from it, Thomas asks still lying down,

"What happened?"

"I was just going to ask you that. You passed out."

"I did?"

Newt nods, "Yes."

"How did you find me?"

"I saw you enter the Mirror Maze. You were there for 10 minutes and you still didn't came out." he gives a little shrug, "I thought I should come and see what was going on. Then I found you unconscious on the floor and one of the mirrors broken."

Thomas' eyes widen as he remembers what happened and he springs to a sitting position, "I remember now! I saw people in the mirrors and they spoke to me!"

"What did they tell you?"

"Uh..." he remembers the one with Newt, "...Nothing important. But we have to go back to the car and ask Teresa about what she saw in here."

"Good luck because Teresa and Minho aren't answering the walkie-talkies."

 

* * *

 

Minho continued to follow after Teresa but damn was the girl fast. He ran, passing between the people standing between the stands and games. He glances at his right and continues, but he stops once his eyes caught something over a stand. A mask. A white mask with symbols on it hanging from the top of the stand.

He pants, "The mask Teresa saw at the party." he looks to the course he was running and back at the mask. He growls in frustration and runs again, "Teresa!"

Minho continued to follow after Teresa but damn was the girl fast. He ran, passing between the people standing between the stands and games. He glances at his right and continues, but he stops once his eyes caught something over a stand. A mask. A white mask with symbols on it hanging from the top of the stand.

He pants, "The mask Teresa saw at the party." he looks to the course he was running and back at the mask. He growls in frustration and runs again, "Teresa!"

Minho manages to catch up with Teresa. He finds her standing still, looking at a blue and yellow tent. He walks towards her, standing beside her and watches her face. She was still looking at the tent.

"What?" he asks.

"The tune stopped. It stopped once I got here." she turns to look at him, "That's so weird."

"Yeah, what's weirder is that you managed to hear it all the way to the car. Where did you hear it, anyways?"

"The day I got kidnapped. I ended up coming here and found several toys, but there was this toy in form of a flower." she smiles, "The flowers turns into a ballerina and a melody starts playing as she dances."

"...Okay. Now that you told me that we can go back to the car."

"But I need to know why the melody stopped once I arrived."

Teresa moves away the curtain and enters the tent. Minho follows after her and they're both standing inside the tent. It was just like when Teresa saw it the other day. There were a bunch of toys on shelves, both broken and functional.

"Okay. We've already seen the creepy toys, now let's go." said Minho.

"Wait." she starts walking towards the table in the middle of the tent, Minho behind her. They approach the table and only find the repairing instruments, "The flower. It's gone."

"Maybe it needed to be repaired."

Teresa frowns.

They hear a noise coming right over the back of the tent, just outside. Minho pats on Teresa's shoulders, telling her that they have to leave now. The raven girl stares at the table for a couple of seconds before they ran out of the tent.

They walk out of the tent and find Newt holding Thomas, the brunet's right arm over his shoulders. The four of the look at each other.

"There you are!" Minho walks towards them and takes in his friend's state, "What happened to you?"

"Long story." he takes his arm off Newt's shoulders, "What are you two doing here? I thought we agreed that you would stay in the car."

"Yeah, but Teresa-

"It's a long story." says the raven girl.

"Hey," they turn to find Gally and Aris walking towards him, "What's this? A meeting and you didn't tell us?"

"It's a long story." answer Thomas, Newt, Minho and Teresa at the same time.

"What time is it?" asks Teresa.

Minho looks at his wrist watch, "7:15."

"Well, I don't wanna worry my mom. She said that I should come back before 8 o'clock, so if you don't mind..."

"Not at all." says Gally as he takes out his car keys.

The pack goes towards the entrance of the carnival, exiting and walking towards where Gally parked his truck. As they are getting closer to the truck, Thomas notices that Newt stopped walking and that he's standing behind, looking down at the ground. He approaches the blond witch,

"Hey, Newt? Are you okay?"

The others also notice the two of them stop, so they stop, watching them from the distance. The blond witch was still looking down,

"Newt, are you alright? What is it?"

Thomas doesn't notice, but Newt's hands start shining blue with magic. Aris is the only one to notice but too late.

_"Thomas!"_

Thomas finds himself being thrown to the ground by a great force. Newt's magic. He looks up from the ground to the blond witch, who now was looking at him but he looked... scared? Sorry?

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" his hands start shining again but his expression is the same.

Thomas goes to stand up but he's thrown again to the ground, harder this time.

"I swear I didn't mean to do that!"

"Yeah, I'm not sure I should believe that."

Newt makes an offended face at him. The rest of the pack move so they're at a safe distance. This time Newt doesn't wait for Thomas to try and get up; he conjures a fireball and throws it at where the brunet is, but Thomas manages to roll and avoid it. He quickly gets on his feet,

"Newt, what's wrong?!"

"That's what's wrong!" yells Teresa as she points at something over Newt.

Right over Newt and at his sides there were visible strings. Like the ones that Gally had when he was being controlled by them.

"Strings! They're strings!" yells Minho.

"Strings?!"

Another fireball goes right past his head. Newt then turns towards the rest of the pack and throws three fireballs at them, but Gally quickly takes his sword and uses it to deflect the attack. Aris hasn't attacked yet. He's standing still while looking at the strings on Newt's body. He notices something.

"These strings are different."

Gally turns to him, "What?"

Newt throws another fireball at them with his right hand and with his left hand he starts making the earth shake down their feet. After watching the strings, Thomas remembers what they did to release Gally from the strings control. He takes his claws out and he's about to run towards Newt to cut the visible strings when Aris yells

_"Don't cut them!"_

And Thomas stops before he can even move. "What?!"

"But last time you told us to cut them!" yells Minho.

"Yes, but these aren't like the last time! These strings are made of magic! They're not wrapped around him, they go through him!"

Thomas turns towards Newt and for the first time he notices that indeed, the strings aren't wrapped around Newt like they were with Gally. They go through his skin.

"If you cut the wrong one he might die!"

Thomas doesn't want that. He keeps his claws at his sides. "So which string we have to cut?!"

"I'm on it!"

Gally takes his cuff off and the lighter brunet witch's hands start glowing green as his eyes roam over the strings. He raises his hand and something green colors one of the strings in green.

"Okay! You have to cut the green string! Whatever you do, do not touch anything else!"

"No shit!"

The fireballs are thrown at them at the same time, with Thomas avoiding them and Gally blocking them with his sword. Newt moves his wrists and the earth starts shaking again, causing Minho to fall to the ground. In an instant, the ground underneath him starts liquefying and he starts to sink. He starts screaming as he sinks and Teresa turns to him.

"Minho!" she yells.

Thomas hears her screaming and turns to see Minho and he panics too.

"Minho!"

Aris uses his magic to throw Newt out of balance, making him lose his concentration he had over the ground. The ground turns solid again but Minho stays stuck in between it, his elbows, all his back and mostly his legs. Teresa runs towards Minho and kneels on the ground beside him.

"Oh god, does it hurt?" she asks.

"Not actually. But I rather not be in this position for too long."

"Okay."

Back at the battle, Newt looks over at Aris,

"Aris, watch out!" he yells before he casts a blue fireball at him. It hits the other witch straight to the chest, sending him to the ground. "Sorry!"

The blond witch tries to move but he finds his feet stuck on the ground by magic. He looks up just in time as Thomas is suddenly in front of him, raising his clawed hand and cutting the green string from Newt's back. After he cuts that string, all the other strings disappear and Newt falls unconscious over Thomas' arms.

Minho finds himself freed from the ground with Teresa still beside him. Gally helps Aris stand on his feet and after they all are standing they turn to Thomas and Newt. The brunet werewolf looks down at the unconscious blond on his arms and sighs in relief. What he would give to have more time like this, him holding Newt close to him.

 

* * *

 

After the whole ordeal, the pack decides to leave the parking lot. Thomas took Newt to his house and after explaining what happened to his mom, she allowed him to go to Newt's bedroom and laid him over his bed. He stayed there for a couple of minutes before he left.

At the carnival over one of the trailers, Gothika and another female figure were lounging over the chairs and table at the mini-kitchen. The other female had short shoulder-length wavy ash grey hair and blue eyes, and was wearing a blue overcoat with six yellow buttons and cuff links, and it seemed like it was all she was wearing. Her long legs were showing and they disappeared in blue & white converse.

The other female moaned in discontent, "It was a pity that that guy managed to get free from my strings. Just like the other one did. We could've had fun!"

"That's your idea of fun?" Gothika mocks her.

"Better than yours. Making your tattoos come alive to scare people around."

"Well, at least my pets didn't run away and killed that girl."

"Hey! My baby wanted to go out that night. It's not my fault he decided to play a little rough with her. And hey, I killed that man to have someone to blame it on." she chuckles, "It wasn't easy to make him decapitate himself, so give me some credit."

"Give you some credit? You just had to move some strings and done." she crosses her legs, "Anyways, Retz, shouldn't you be wearing boy's clothes?"

Retz, the puppeteer, grins, "It really doesn't matter, does it?" she gives a twirl to show her clothes, "Besides, the girl's clothes are much cuter! Also..." she puts a finger over her lip, "I'm not human in the first place, so gender really doesn't matter."

"Yeah, well, don't get used to this place and their clothes. You know we won't be here for too long and we'll be going."

"Yeah, but when?" she slumps over the chair opposite of Gothika, "I'm getting rather anxious waiting."

"Be patient, my friends." says a male voice.

A pair of black boots appear, coming out from the shadows as the two females turn towards the figure of the ringmaster holding his staff.

"Soon, the end will come. And we'll be the only ones still standing in this town." he said while grinning with malice.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is near. This Saturday to be precise. I hope you can join me that day to read the last chapter of this season :D


	8. Battle With the Forces of Evil

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! The last chapter!! Sorry, I couldn't upload it yesterday but can you see how long this chapter is?! It's the longest chapter I've done!! I'm so proud!! *wipes tear¨s from eyes*  
> Anyways, I really really hope you enjoy this chapter and the end of season 3!  
> Thank you to all of you who read this season from the beginning!!

The night was calm and a little bit chilly, the sky so dark that the moon was a blessing, being the only thing that illuminated the school from the inside. Thomas is standing in the hall, looking around while being surrounded by only the lockers. He looks as the moon lighting makes a shadow over half the lockers and 'till the end of the hall.

"Hello?" his voice doesn't even echoes in the empty hallways and that should scare him a little. "Hello?"

He starts walking, taking slow and cautious steps through the hallways. His eyes moved around the place but there's nothing there.

"Newt? Are you there?" he continues walking, his eyes falling over the open classroom doors. "Newt?" Why he was looking for Newt, he doesn't remember but it must be a good reason. If it has to be with Newt, it must be a good reason. He peeks inside one of the classrooms in case they're not actually empty but yep, they are. What was he expecting--

A chill goes down his back and seconds later a shadow runs at the end of the hall as he takes his head out of the classroom and he swears he sees the shape of a person but he blinks and sees nothing. Frowning, he tries to concentrate on his hearing; maybe he could pick up something. Nothing. Maybe he's seeing things?

He gets the exact same feeling that he had moments ago but instead it was behind him, so he turns around quick and again sees the shadow of someone disappearing over the corner of the hall. Not loosing time, he runs towards the corner, and turns around but there's no one there. It can't be a coincidence that he saw someone running seconds ago twice. He lets out a sigh and turns around when he sees someone standing in the shadows a few meters away from him. He can't see the person's face as they're wearing a hood but can tell that they are kind of the same height -maybe also a teen? Neither of them moves until the stranger does take a step forward and Thomas brings out his claws in case he needs them. The person doesn't stop and continues walking until they're out of the shadows but still Thomas can't see their face, the goddamn hood covering it. The person is wearing a dark hood, dark navy blue jeans and white and black converse. Thomas can't get any scent from them and that unnerves him. The person stops just a couple of steps in front of Thomas and slowly brings his hand up and reaches out to remove the hood. Thomas watches as long and fair skinned fingers clutch at the sides of the hood and removes it, revealing soft blond hair, chocolate eyes and fair skin.

Newt.

Thomas lets out a relieved sigh. There he is. He smiles at seeing the witch but when the other doesn't smile back at him -not that he's obliged to-, Thomas knows there's something going on. He takes a closer look to the witch's expression: his eyes are cold, not like the ones Newt always has. They aren't staring at him, they're glaring at him; he doesn't even blink. His mouth is in a thin line and he doesn't open it to speak or anything.

"Newt? Are you okay?"

The blond witch takes a step forward and Thomas instinctively takes one back. Why he did that? He's never taken a step back when Newt wants to approach him. But something deep inside him told him to take another one and he did. The doppelganger takes another one forward and his expression still hasn't change. Thomas is thinking whether he should turn around and run the hell away from here but then Newt stops walking. Thomas watches him mutter something in low voice, but it's enough to make his hand shine blue -like when the flames appear- and with a magnanimous force send Thomas flying across the hall and onto the ground with an extraordinary strength that knocks the wind out of him and makes the brunet close his eyes at the impact. When he opens his eyes again he finds himself not on the ground of the hallway at school but on the floor of his room, his sheets pooling down on the floor near his feet where he fell down seconds ago.

A nightmare? It had been just a nightmare?

Thomas brings a hand to touch his chest and finds it still heaving. He looks at his bed and realizes that he fell out of his bed at the same time he hit the floor in his nightmare.

But why did he have a nightmare involving Newt? Why did it felt so real? And why was he so scared?

 

* * *

 

A couple of hours later, at the morning, Thomas' dad knocked on his door and opened it to find to his surprise the room empty. He frowned and went downstairs were Mary was, preparing a coffee for herself.

"Where's Thomas?"

"Good morning to you too. Thomas left for school."

Steve looks at his watch, "This early?"

"He woke up early and said he needed to be there early."

At school, Thomas had already taken his books out of his locker. He was just leaning against it as he waited for his friends to arrive. The first one he saw arriving was Newt, readjusting the strap of his satchel over his shoulder as he made his way to his locker. Thomas decided to wait until he was going into his classroom to talk to him. Once the blond was over, he went to his classroom and Thomas followed. The classroom was empty, except for some girl sleeping at the back of the class. Newt sat in the third row, almost in the middle, and put his books on his desk. Thomas approached him and the blond raised his head as he saw him,

"Hey,"

Thomas couldn't help but smile, "Hey. How're feeling?"

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

Thomas nods but he doesn't leave. He stands there, in front of the blond's desk. Newt raises an eyebrow at him,

"Is there something else?"

"...Yeah. It's just... When I took you to your house after you passed out, I thought your mom would be rude to me or would snatch you out of my arms the moment she saw me but..." Newt looks at his book again, "She didn't. She acted completely normal. She smiled at me, she was the one who allowed me into the house and to your room. You didn't told your mom about us. That we are no longer together."

Newt looks up and bites his lips, "No, I didn't."

"Why?"

Newt shrugs, "Because."

After he said that, another girl entered the classroom. Thomas frowns at Newt's words. Just because? Did he think their break up wasn't that important to tell his mom? Or maybe their relationship? Thomas gripped his hand, making it a fist, and tried to slow down his breathing. _'Don't get angry now, don't get angry now.'_ He then remembered his nightmare. Was it his brain telling him to stay away from Newt?

Newt looks up from his book and something in his face changes, "Thomas, are you alright?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Your eyes are glowing."

Indeed, Thomas' eyes were glowing golden. He blinked a few times but it wouldn't go away. Another person enters the classroom. Shit. He tries again but no success. Eve Newt gets up, looking worried.

"Thomas, maybe you should-" he raises his hand like in his nightmare.

"Stay away from me." Thomas says in a firm voice and turns around to exit the classroom. Newt stays where he is, standing beside his seat and with his hand raised. He doesn't know what happened.

As he hurries through the hallways and towards the bathroom, Minho was talking to some girl when he saw his best friend and smiled,

"Hey, Thomas-"

But the other didn't even stop to acknowledge him, which worried the Asian. He excused himself from the girl and followed after Thomas. Thomas enters the bathroom and thank God there's no one there. He enters a stall and as he closes the door, Minho enters the bathroom.

"Thomas, you there?"

The pants coming from the stall were all Minho had as answer. Inside the stall, Thomas had pressed his forehead against the cool tile walls and tried to calm down.

"Calm down, okay! Whatever it is, just calm down!"

Thomas closed his eyes and pressed both hands against the walls as a growl came out of his mouth. He opened his eyes and felt them still glowing. He shook his head and closed them again. His hands now had claws and he was clawing at the walls.

"Thomas! Listen to my voice! Breathe in, slowly, then out. In and out!"

"In and out." repeated Thomas.

Still with his eyes closed, then did what his friend told him. The claws at his hands started disappearing, and then he was just pressing his palms against the wall. His fangs, -he hadn't realized his fangs came out too- were no longer present. With his forehead against the wall, he slowly opened his eyes and could feel them normal. It took almost a minute after he calmed down for him to come out of the stall. Minho was waiting against the sinks, arms crossed.

"You alright, bud?"

Thomas nodded, "Yeah... Sorry."

"It's okay." Minho patted him on the back.

Both of them decided to exit the bathroom but in their way of doing that, they found a guy standing just outside the door, staring at them with wide eyes. It seemed like he heard everything. Thomas opened his mouth to explain but then closed it and just left. Minho stayed and he said,

"He, um, had a burrito for breakfast." he pats the other boy, "Probably not a good idea to eat it at morning, right?"

The other guy nodded and with that Minho left, going towards his best friend. The hallways were more crowded. Minho found Thomas over his -Minho's- locker, head against the door.

"Hey, what happened?"

"I just... I don't know. I was talking to Newt and-

"You were talking with him? What did he told you?"

"Nothing."

"So, is that the problem or...?"

Thomas groans, "I don't know, Min. Let's just leave it like that, ok?"

"Ok."

"Thanks." he sighs, and after a moment decided to change the subject, "Did you found the answer to the question #15?"

"No, and I asked another 5 guys and they didn't either. I don't think there's an answer to that!"

Thomas chuckles and with that they start walking towards their classroom.

"No, I'm serious, man. There's no answer. The teacher probably did it on purpose!"

 

* * *

 

At the station, Alec was back at his lab even thought the sheriff told him he could take a couple of days off, but he really felt better. He didn't want to be locked in his house all day when he could do something useful. He was looking through some old files when he heard someone coming downstairs and he was surprised to see Dick over the entrance of his lab, holding a big basket with a teddy bear wearing a blue bath, blue and yellow flowers and more things in it.

Alec approached the blond man, "What's all this?"

"The whole station knew about what happened and, um, wanted to give you a kind of 'present'? I don't really know. They told me to bring it to you."

"That's so sweet." Alec says as the other puts the basket on the table. He moves to grab the teddy bear and press his face against the soft of its fur.

"Yeah, I think the bear it's from Morales. Vince thought about the oatmeal cookies, don't ask me why. The chicken noodle soup is from the sheriff and the flowers were from the girls."

"And what did you get me?"

"Me? I saved your live, I think that's enough gift."

Alec chuckles, "Yeah, I think so." he smiles, "Thanks, again."

Dick shakes his head, "No problem." he's about to turn around but he stops, "Oh, and before McNemey left she wanted me to give you the results of that thing you found at the crime scene of the decapitated male."

"They're done?"

"Yeah."

"And what was it?" he asked as Dick gave him the file. He had it all this time on his hands while he carried the basket.

"It was a piece of bone, but McNamey says it didn't belong to the victim."

"A piece of bone." repeats Alec as he looks at the file. He remembers the skull he saw underneath the hood while he and Teresa were captured. Could it be...?

Alec is so immersed in his thought that when he feels a finger touch the side of his neck he suddenly jumps to the side, looking at Dick as he takes his hand back.

"Sorry, but your..." he says pointing at his neck.

"What? My what?" Alec brings a hand to touch his neck and feels his patch peeling off. "Oh!"

"Yeah,"

Alec keeps a hand over his neck, "I'll just... need to put another one. The effect of this one is almost done so..."

Dick nods. When the other doesn't move or anything, he understands, "Oh, right!" Alec nods, "Okay. I'll be leaving then."

"Yeah."

Dick nods and turns around to start leaving. As he leaves he yells over his shoulder, "The Belgian chocolates are from me!"

Alec smiles at that with a hand over his neck. Now, where did he leave his patches? He went to look through his satchel, the bone file left forgotten on the table.

 

* * *

 

At school, Minho was at his History class with Aris and Gally. The witch was sitting at his left, so when the teacher turned around to write on the board, Minho leaned to the left,

"I have a problem." he said to Aris.

"I don't know what kind of problem you can have. The teacher just told us to read the two pages and then answer the questions he's writing on the board."

"It's not about that! It's about Thomas."

"Troubles in paradise? What is it?

"I, uh... I might know something that Thomas really needs to hear, but I'm not sure if he should."

Aris frowns, "I don't follow."

"I know something, okay? A-And Thomas has the right to know, but I don't want him to be sad or angry about it."

"What is it then?"

"That's none of your business." Gally says beside him, although his eyes are over the board.

" _Shh!_ Nobody asked you!" he turns to Minho again, "Well, no matter what is. Are you really sure that Thomas must know about it? Completely sure?"

"Yeah."

"Then tell him. Even if you think it might hurt him, but you have to." he sits back to look at the board.

Minho does the same but he stares at his notebook. Even if it hurts him, he'll tell Thomas.

 

* * *

 

After school, Thomas and Minho went to Thomas' house. Vince and Mary were currently working so it leaved the house for themselves. Of course, that if Thomas' dad wasn't there.

"Wow, Now we do have a lot of homework. Did the teachers decided together to leave us homework? That would be sick." Thomas said as soon as they entered the house.

Minho looked around as he put his backpack on the couch, "Where's your dad?"

"Mm? I think he's out. I can't smell him anywhere."

Minho decides that now it's the time. "Thomas, there's something I must tell you. Although I don't know if you want to hear it."

"What is it?"

Minho takes a deep breath and looking at is best friend's eyes he says

"Your dad told Newt to break up with you."

Thomas stays still. He doesn't move, nor blinks or talks. He just stays still in the same place and stares at his best friend. Minho's heart is beating hard and he wonder is Thomas can hear it.

"What?"

"Your dad told-

"No, I heard what you said. I meant..." he chuckles, "You can't be serious."

"I am damn serious. Newt told me. The other night, while we were looking for Teresa and Alec, I confronted him. He told me your dad told him to break up with you, for your good."

"That can't be true."

Minho raises an eyebrow, "You think I'm lying?"

"No."

"So you're calling Newt a liar?"

"I didn't say that." he takes air, "My dad would never do that to me. He may be strict but he cares about me."

"You told me you thought that he didn't like Newt. Since the beginning."

"He told me it's not that he doesn't like him; it's just that he's being cautious." Minho gives him a look, "He wouldn't lie to me."

"Well, Thomas, let's count all the things your father has told you that turned out to be true." he stays silent for a moment, "Um, you know what, why don't you go first, 'cause I can't think of any."

"Look, I have lots of questions for my dad too, which I can ask him when he gets here for lunch."

"Lunch." Minho says and then makes a pause, "...That's nice."

Thomas rolls his eyes and turns to him, "What. You don't think I'll be able to tell if he's lying."

"You'll be able to tell. The question is, will you want to."

That sounded like an accusation. Thomas' wolf growled at that. Before Thomas can retort to that, the phone rings. He goes to pick it up and answers it, "Hello. Dad, yeah, I was just-" he's cut off, his eyebrows join as he hears the man on the other line, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Minho turns to look at him as his face falls a little, "I hope it turns out to be good news." he nods, "Okay. Goodbye." and then he hangs up. "He's at the doctor's. He got held up waiting for an appointment." he says as he goes to the fridge, opening it and taking out the juice jar.

Minho leans over the table and looks at the phone, "Then why does it say Granny's dinner & hotel on the caller ID, Thomas." Thomas' movements stop, his eyes following his friend's at the telephone. Minho lets out a chuckle, "Come on. Are they giving free orthopedic exams with their tiny soaps and their pillow mints?"

Thomas puts the juice at the table, hard, and turns to look at Minho with a frown.

"You know, maybe this is hard for you to understand, but not everything's a joke. That man is my father. He means something to me." Thomas' vision began blurring as he tried to ignore the lump on his throat. He didn't want to have this conversation.

Minho nods, looking around the room as if trying to see what to say. He's about to leave but turns towards Thomas, "For the record, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I don't take back what I said about your father, because you're my best friend and he hurt you, and that's not ok with me."

Thomas just stares at him. They look at each other until Minho shakes his head and goes the living room where his backpack is. He grabs his bag and goes through the door, closing it behind him. Thomas stays there at the kitchen alone; he looks at the juice jar on the table and in anger he smashes it against the floor.

 

* * *

 

At Teresa's house, the raven girl was at her room thinking about the whole banshee thing. Was it a new thing? Did she have that ability since she was born? How did she acquire it? Could it be inherited? Maybe her mom...? Teresa came downstairs to find her mom eating at the dining room.

"Mom."

Emily smiled at her, "Hey, sweetheart. You hungry?"

"Not actually." her mom continues eating as Teresa stands in front of the table, facing her mom, "Mom. Did you ever... I don't know heard voices or thought heard something but you didn't know where they came from? You know, like, when you were younger?"

"Hear voices or stuff? Honey, do you need you pills again?"

"No! No, no." she shakes her head, "Not at all. I was just watching a documental about people with the ability to hear voices and that kind of things."

"Oh." her mom says, "Well, I don't. But those people must be special, I think. At least some of them, the others are just crazy."

Teresa nods. "Yeah..."

Emily tilts her head, "You sure you're not hungry?"

"Maybe a little." Teresa says with a small smile.

"Well, let me tell you what we'll do." the older raven woman stands up, wiping her mouth, "I'm going to take you a plate of pasta so you can eat while you do your homework." she side-hugs Teresa, "If you want more or something else, just come and tell me, ok?"

"Sure,"

Emily smiles and kisses the top of Teresa's head. She lets go of her daughter and goes to the kitchen as Teresa goes upstairs.

 

* * *

 

A couple of hours later, Steve comes back to the house. He finds it weird that the lights aren't turned on, so he flicks the switch. The house illuminates and to his surprise he finds Thomas eating over the table at the dining room. The younger brunet just looks up before looking down at his plate.

"Hey, kid." his dad makes his way towards the kitchen, "You already finishing that?"

"Didn't have much hungry." mutters Thomas.

"Well, I'm starving. I could eat a buffalo! Not that I eat buffalos daily, but you get my point. Although I sometimes wonder how it would be like to--

"I know." Thomas says out of the blue.

Steve turns around, "What?"

Thomas doesn't say anything for a moment before he looks at his dad, "Is it true that you told Newt to break up with me?"

Steve stays silent. The two werewolves stay silent and only stare at each other. They can hear each other's heartbeats and smell the other. Feeling defeated, Steve opens his mouth

"You have to understand-

Thomas quickly gets up from the chair, "Leave me alone." and goes to the stairs. His dad starts following.

"Thomas-

 _"Leave me alone!"_ he yells as he runs to his bedroom and shuts the door closed. His dad doesn't follow after him.

Thomas felt his heart clenching inside his chest. It hurt. He was sad and he was angry. He was so angry at his dad he just wanted-- In frustration, he kicks the chair and his boombox falls to the floor and a song starts playing,

 

_Very superstitious, writings on the wall,_

_Very superstitious, ladders bout' to fall,_

 

Thomas looks at his room door and at the boombox. He turns on the volume so his room is filled with music before he turns around and opens the window. He looks back at the door and nothing happens. He exits his room through the window and using his werewolf reflexes he gets to the ground and takes a last look to his house.

 

_Superstition ain't the way_

 

Before he starts running away. He doesn't have a specific place to run to so he ends up running towards the woods. He just runs and runs and doesn't stop. He runs until his lungs feel like they're about to explode but even then he doesn't stop. What makes him stop is the fact that he's not running on two legs but he's running in four. He stops. Since when he runs with his hands too? His hands have claws. He brings one hand to touch the fangs coming out of his mouth. He wolfed out for being that angry?

He sits back on the dried leafs and just breathes to calm down.

 

* * *

 

At his room, Minho was sitting over his bed with his phone over his ear. It was his fourth time and Thomas wasn't answering his phone. After the third call he thought about going to Thomas' house, but didn't want after what happened. When Thomas didn't answer the fourth call, Minho huffed and putted his phone away. He stayed like that for almost a minute before something came to his mind and he quickly got up on his feet,

"Ma! I'm going out!"

With that he grabbed his jacket and went out of his house. He ended up going to the carnival and found out that they were closing early. Why was that? He managed to sneak in without being noticed and went straight to the big tent with the shining 'Whishing Star' signboard on top. Good thing there wasn't anyone at the entrance, and all the other people were busy making sure the customers were leaving. He walked through the hallway that led to Sonya's cell when a voice stopped him. A female voice talking to another female voice. Minho hides behind some wooden boxes as the two females continue their talk.

"Some people are telling me that you won't comply with their wishes." Gothika, the tattooed lady, said.

"Some of their wishes are horrible. I am not going to be part of this."

"Well, I don't care about any of that. So long they pay, I don't care if they wish for world domination or to be able to breathe underwater, just do it." with that Gothika left.

Minho waited until she was gone and almost two minutes later to come out of his hiding. He slowly made his way to the cellar; Sonya was there, wearing the same long lilac dress, and with hair like fire. As she had turned her back at the entrance, he cleared his throat to announce his presence.

"Hey,"

Sonya turned around, "Hi. I haven't seen you in a while."

"Yeah. Sorry about that. Been kind of busy."

"It's okay. It's not like I was expecting you to come every day."

"Yeah, I just came here because... I had some questions."

Sonya smiles, "Ask them."

Minho takes a moment before he asks "Do you have something to do with all the strange things that have been happening?"

Sonya's smile falls, "What?"

"Answer me."

"But I don't understand. What strange things? Wha-

"You are, aren't you?!"

"No!"

"Come on! As soon as the carnival arrives at the town bizarre things start happening!"

"Bizarre? What do you mean with-

"Deaths! Kidnappings! That sort of things!"

Sonya doesn't say anything. It seems like she was about to cry but Minho wouldn't fall for that.

"You said it yourself. As soon as the carnival arrived, things started to happen. Think about it."

Minho frowns, "What?"

"Do you believe in magic?"

 _'If you only knew'_ he thought. "You would be surprised in what people believe these days."

"Do you trust me?"

"...I don't know. Should I?"

"Then trust me on this: Something's about to happen... something big. And you shouldn't be here when it happens."

Before Minho could ask what she meant with that, a noise was heard from the end of the hallway, right at the entrance to the tent. Someone was coming.

"You have to leave now!" Sonya said.

Minho didn't refute. He went to the other end of the tent and easily went out. He ran out of the carnival and didn't look back.

 

* * *

 

In the death of the night, three figures were shown to be inside a tent: the ringmaster Mr. Black, Gothika and Retz. They were standing around the table where Mr. Black's scepter was currently lying, talking about their plans when another person appears inside the tent. Mr. Black, without turning around, grinned as he said

"Doctor Blythe, I'm so glad you could join us."

He finally turns around to meet the toy repairer with his googles on top of his head entering the tent. He approached the leader of the show,

"I'm not so sure I want to be part of this." he said to the leader.

Gothika and Retz frowned but Mr. Black just grinned and pulled his arm around his shoulders.

"Just think about it, Doc! We just need a little more souls so I can be powerful enough to do whatever I like! Like bringing the dead back to live! You want to be able to hold you daughter again, don't you?"

Doctor Blythe looks down in blue.

"That's the spirit!" he lets go of the doctor and turns to the other three. He grabs his scepter and holding it up he declares "Just one more day and nothing will be able to stop us! Nothing!"

 

* * *

 

The next day at the first rays of sun, Thomas slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times to get used to the morning lights. He was about to roll on his side over his bed when he felt the texture under his body weird. He frowned and opened his eyes again, this time taking a notice in where he is. He slowly sat up as he looked around at the trees surrounding him and at the dried leafs under his palms. He slept all night on the outside. And apparently he tore away his shirt in some moment. He looked down at his uncovered chest and the dirt on it.

Minutes later he was walking beside the road of the woods when he heard a car engine and he turned his head over his shoulder. He saw a blue car with Minho behind the wheel. He stopped waiting for the car to reach him and stop beside him. Without saying anything, Thomas opened the door and entered the car. As Minho drove his parent's car, he didn't even spare a look at his best friend. Thomas was just looking at the front

"How did you know?"

"Vince noticed when he came back. Didn't want Mary or your dad to know, so..."

Thomas nods. They stay silent again for a couple of minutes before Minho is the first to speak,

"I'm sorry."

"No, I'm the one who's sorry."

"You're right."

Thomas watches as the corner of his lips go up just for a moment, forming a small smile.

"But you were right. About my dad, I mean. That's why I ended up here."

"Yeah, I guessed it."

"If you knew then why did you came for me?"

Minho glances at him quickly and then back to the road, "I told you, didn't I? I'm always with you. Mumps and werewolf stuff."

Thomas smiled at him, "Thanks, bro."

Minho shrugs like saying _'Okay, okay'_. They stayed in silence again as Minho drove; Thomas was looking out of the window when the Asian male asked

"Where's your shirt?"

Thomas turned to look at him with a grin plastered on his face and Minho glanced at him and he also grinned and they both laughed.

 

* * *

 

While the pack was at school, Vince was over the station talking to Alec about the recent murder case. The decapitated man. They were over his office with the door closed.

"So the piece of bone that you found at the crime scene doesn't belong to the victim?" asks Vince.

"Exactly. And it's not from any animal in the area, which is weird since that means it must belong to a human."

"And the murder weapon?"

"From the angles and cuts I guess it might be an axe." he grabs the files and takes out one picture of the body, "You see this?" he asks as he points at the man's body, "This cuts implies that the axe or whatever object used must have been held on the right side, and in this position with a strong swift the head rolled."

Vince stays on his place, looking at the photo not knowing what the scientist meant before his eyes widen in realization.

"He decapitated himself?" Alec nods, "How is that possible?"

"Well, now that we are in the same boat I think we should start thinking outside the box."

Vince now knew about Alec and he promised the young scientist to keep it a secret. Besides, who would he tell?

"I'm just supposing that because..." he lets out a sigh, "You know how much strength you would have to put to decapitate yourself?"

Vince grabs one of the photos of the file and holds it to his face, "Not just your strength but also your willing to die with no regrets." Alec frowns in confusion, "Think about it. Self-preservation is the first law of nature."

"Yes, I know, a person's life is conditioned by means of which people preserve their own existence."

"It means that you don't only need the strength to decapitate yourself, but also need to be willing to do it."

"...Unless you're not actually willing to die."

Vince frowns, "What do you mean?"

"What if, now talking about something supernatural, the man _did_ decapitated himself but at the same time it wasn't him."

"I'm losing you, son."

Alec holds his hands up like trying to stop him so he can explain himself again, "He was the one who used the axe to kill himself but he wasn't himself."

Vince looks to his face, "Like if someone was controlling him."

Alec nods.

"Thomas did mention that the night they helped us find you and Teresa one of their friends got controlled by a puppeteer. With strings."

"Strings." repeats the brunet.

"It could be, right?"

"Yes, it all fits."

"Except for the piece of bone."

Alec stays still as he remembers the skull underneath the hood. Could it may be...? He shakes his head.

"I'll continue to investigate." he says to Vince. The older man nods at him and watches as Alec exits his office.

 

* * *

 

At lunch, the pack were outside the cafeteria, sitting on one of the stone tables and seats as they discussed something important. Minho was the one currently speaking,

"I'm telling you. The carnival is involved in something big. And I don't know why, but I think it starts today."

"Today? And why not tomorrow at Halloween?" asks Teresa.

Minho shrugs, "I don't know. Too cliché?"

"Guys!" interferes Thomas, "Listen, we have to be extra super agree that it's the carnival and not our imagination."

"You bought that potion from a lady in the carnival and then she magically disappeared." Aris says.

"The stand where I saw the mask disappeared when we were looking for it and then reappeared when I was following Teresa through the carnival." Minho says.

"Both Newt and I got controlled by a puppeteer in the carnival." Gally says.

"Alec and I joked about it, but I'm sure that the ones that took us were dressed as clowns." Teresa says.

"And where else would you find a clown if not in the only carnival in town?" Minho says in his _'you need more proof?'_ tone.

Thomas nods, "Okay. We know it's the carnival. How are we gonna do this?"

" _'Do this'_?"

"Fight."

"Thomas, I know we're supernatural but we're not superheroes. We can't fight against whatever forces of evil the carnival has."

"I know. But if it's not us then who?"

The pack looks between each other. They seem to exchange nods and look back at Thomas,

"Okay. What's your plan?"

 

* * *

 

Just before the last class came to an end, a curly haired dark skinned girl approached Minho as he was putting his books inside his backpack. She held a green ticket to him and waited for him to take it.

"Here." she said with a smile.

Minho takes it. "What's this?"

"Tickets to enter the carnival. It's for my birthday! I'm giving almost everyone one." with that she turns around and approached another girl and gives her a ticket too.

Minho looks down at his ticket and stares at it for a couple of seconds before he realizes what that means. Oh shit.

After the bell rang and every student was out of their classrooms and picking their stuff at the lockers, Minho ran like a bullet out of its canon to find the pack. He found them near Thomas' locker and he almost smashed against the lockers, holding the green ticket,

"We've got a problem."

 

* * *

 

The pack was over Aris and Gally's mansion. After school, they went there to make the plan.

"What are we gonna do about Aisha's birthday? She invited half of the school to the carnival." asks Minho.

"We may do something, but I have to be there to do it. Also we need to have a plan once the bad guys notice the people leaving so sudden." answers Aris.

Thomas turns to him, "We've agreed that we don't have a plan. We'll just... go there and talk to the ringmaster. If they want to fight, we'll have to fight."

"We might lose." Aris says.

"We'll do it together."

"When aren't you sappy?"

Thomas snorts. He looks at his pack and they all nod at him.

 

* * *

 

At the carnival, it was obvious that many of the students came. The whole place was full. A mother and her children were buying some candy cotton. A couple was sitting down on one bench eating a corndog while holding hands. Three friends were running to be the first on the roller coaster. Aisha -the birthday girl- and her friends were laughing and smiling while passing the stands. They stopped at one with jewelry and they told the birthday girl to buy the nice necklace with a heart on it. Aisha smiled and nodded, turning her upper body to take her wallet out of her pockets.

Suddenly, Aisha stops smiling and her arms fall to her sides limp; and like a robot she turns around and starts walking away, specifically towards the exit. Her friends do the same. The couple eating a corn dog also raise their heads and letting go of the corndog they walk towards the exit.

Mr. Black was over his trailer, sitting on a black chair while caressing the bat statue on top of his scepter. The door opened suddenly and Gothika wearing a red trapeze costume with bustle skirt with black lace ([x](https://img1.etsystatic.com/021/2/5286888/il_fullxfull.480166953_sdam.jpg)) entered the trailer. Mr. Black didn't turn around; he stared at her through the mirror.

"Boss, we have a problem."

The ringmaster and Gothika come out of the trailer and watch as the people start leaving and the people at the stands working for them too. The carnival was starting to empty. Mr. Black was about to ask what the hell was happening when he felt it. His face obscured and he turned to his second in command,

"There's a witch in here doing this. Find them."

Gothika nods and runs through the people, disappearing between them. Mr. Black went back to his trailer to retrieve his scepter,

"Time to accelerate our plan."

At a safe distance, hiding from the people, Aris was moving his hands while green magic flowed through his fingers and made everyone leave. Somewhere else, Thomas and the pack watched as the people started leaving.

"Ok. Aris is doing his thing. We have to think what we are going to do next." Thomas says.

"You know, this is why people make a plan and _then_ come to fight." Minho says to his friend.

Thomas ignores him and continues saying something when Teresa tugs at his shirt, having his attention.

"Um, Thomas?"

"Yes?"

Teresa points at something away from them. Thomas- as well as the rest- turn to see where Teresa pointed; the sky turns red and a vortex starts appearing above the whole carnival.

"You all can see all this trippy magic stuff, right?" asks Teresa.

"Yeah. Why?" answers Minho.

"I'm off my meds."

Thomas, still looking at the sky, gulps, "Alright. Let's go."

They separate: Thomas with Minho and Newt, and Gally with Teresa. Aris continued to evacuate the people. As they are making their way through the zombie-like people leaving, Teresa turns to the left and sees the toy repairer -Doctor Blythe- walking with the ballerina toy on hands towards a tent. Something stirred inside Teresa's chest and she ran towards him.

"Teresa!" Thomas yelled after her.

Minho turns to him, "I'll go get her!" and runs away.

Thomas and Newt share a look and they nod at each other, and Thomas knows that Newt is thinking the same. This is the first time since they broke up that they are paired together.

 

* * *

 

At the sheriff's station, Dick was checking some files from Sandra Ellison's murder and the decapitation case when a dark skinned deputy walked beside the office and saw him. She had her purse in hand and approached the agent. She knocked on the door, having Dick's attention.

"Hey, you still here?" she asked.

"Yeah, I couldn't go without checking this twice."

"I think you've checked it thrice."

Dick smiles.

"You should go home, Agent."

"You too, Alma."

"That's where I'm going. And to my lovely husband who gave me this for my birthday." she says showing her golden bracelet with tiny diamonds.

"Nice."

She smiles, "Yeah, who would've guess guys know about gold and diamonds."

Dick smiles back as the woman starts leaving and something comes to mind. He starts checking through the files of Sandra Ellison's murder investigation when he finds one file that says the there's a missing object in the list the family gave to the police. A golden bracelet was missing.

"I knew I saw that bracelet somewhere else!"

He roams through some of the pictures delivered to them by the family and he finally founds it. He takes a photo of Sandra and Emma hugging while sitting on the grass, smiles on their faces but that's not what caught his eyes. It's the golden anklet-string with daisies around Sandra's ankle. The same golden anklet he saw at one of the stands at the carnival.

 

* * *

 

Teresa entered the tent and looked around. All the toys were on the ground, some crushed and some not. The table was thrown upside down and all the equipment was all over the floor. Teresa looked around but she didn't saw the toy repairer until she noticed a shadow moving on the back part of the tent. She followed it and found the man she was looking for pacing around with his googles up his head as he mumbled to himself, something she couldn't hear. He seemed in distress.

"Mister!"

Doctor Blythe stopped pacing and turned to the raven girl as she made her way to him.

"Sir, what are you still doing here? We have to leave."

The man shook his head, "I can't leave, I can't leave. I have to finish this."

"What, a toy?" Teresa grabbed his arm and tried to tug him, "You can finish it later!"

"No, not a toy!"

"What?" asks Teresa confused.

Teresa stared at the man as he couldn't hold her gaze and Teresa realized it.

"You're with them."

The man didn't answer but he looks quickly at her before looking at the ground again.

"But... You're not bad. I know it."

"No, no I am not."

"Then why are you with them?"

Doctor Blythe doesn't answer, but he takes out a pocket framed photo from his apron and shows it to Teresa. It's a girl with raven hair, blue eyes and fair skin wearing a ballerina costume. She was smiling at the camera. She looks like the ballerina from the flower toy and then Teresa realizes something.

"Your daughter." she says.

"My dear Eliza was my whole world. But when she died, I thought I was destined to spend my life without her. But Mr. Black will help me. He will bring her back."

Teresa feels bad for the poor man. She shakes her head, "He's lying! That's not real!"

The man seems like he doesn't want to hear more so he turns around and goes to exit the tent; Teresa follows after him. They exit the tent and Teresa sees that the sky is still bleeding red and the vortex is becoming bigger each second. It's even started to blow air and some of the stands are crumbling. Teresa's hair is flowing all over her face,

"Look at what's happening! That's real! Mr. Black doesn't care about your daughter!"

The toy repairer looks around them at the stands being blown by the wind and papers flying and at the vortex. He turns to her with sorrowful eyes.

"But it was my dream."

Teresa grimaces and repeats what Alec told her when they were trapped, "Sometimes, to do what's right, we have to be steady... and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams."

Doctor Blythe stares at her as if he had found the answer to solve all the problems in his life. He looks at her and Teresa doesn't feel fear. He slowly brings a hand to her face and gently touches her cheek, "You remind me of her."

_"Teresa!"_

Minho's yell startles Teresa, and she turns around in time to see Minho coming out of the tent and stand behind her.

"What are you doing?!" he yells over the blowing wind.

She turns to the front but the toy repairer is gone. She looks around but there's no trace of him.

"Come on!"

She turns to Minho and both run away.

 

* * *

 

Aris continued to make the last persons exit the carnival when a knife was thrown his way, almost cutting his cheek. The last group of people were out and away -save- from the carnival; Aris turns his head to the direction the knife came and he sees Gothika standing at the distance with one hand on her hip.

"Well, well, little witch. Found you at last."

"At last took you too long."

Gothika grins maliciously and holds her hand to the front and suddenly her bat tattoos came to life and sprang off her body and towards Aris. The brunet witch makes a force field and the bats dissolved once they touch it. As Aris removes the force field, Gothika turns around to show the tiger tattoo on her back and it comes alive. It launches too quickly at Aris that the witch doesn't have time to attack or defend himself, but before it can touch him, Gally appears and slices it in half. The two halves dissolve. The tall sandy blond stands beside Aris, holding his sword to the front,

"Is that the best you can do?!" Gally yells.

Suddenly, the big and heavy sounds of steps are heard and both Aris and Gally watch as a creature appears beside Gothika. It was dressed in elaborate but crude armor constructed out of bone, wears skulls over their heads and faces, are armed with a detachable bone blade on their right arms, and outfitted claws on their left. Gally was ready to fight but Aris' eyes widen.

"Run."

Gally turns to him, "What?"

"Remember when I told you guys that I understood what the ones that kidnapped Teresa were saying but I didn't have any idea of what they were?"

"Yes."

"Well, now I know what they were! They're Berserkers!"

As soon as he yells the name, the Berserker starts running towards them, so Gally and Aris run away. As they are running with the creature following behind, Gally asks

"What are Berserkers?"

"Were Norse warriors. In the Old Norse literature they are described wearing a kind of coat made from the pelt of an animal during battle. They are also noticed by having fought in a nearly uncontrollable, trance-like fury."

"So that's where the 'going berserk' phrase comes from?"

"Exactly!"

"So essentially you're saying we're screwed?"

"Yep."

"Well, fuck." and continue running.

 

* * *

 

 Alec came into the carnival from a different point, not from the entrance. He had left to his house to take more of his potion and when he came back to the station, he noticed that Dick wasn't there. He went to the office where Dick had been checking some files and he found a note over one of the files.

 ** _'Going to the carnival. Got a clue on the anklet.'_** written in Dick's writing.

Frowning, Alec opened the file and checked it; he went through some photos and found the one with Sandra and the anklet. Joining the points, he realized something and immediately left the station. He told one of the deputies to tell Vince once he came back to go to the carnival. With that said, he went to the carnival in search for Dick.

He was currently looking inside an empty tent. He didn't own a gun, so he was defenseless at the moment. But it seemed he wouldn't need a weapon for the moment, as the tent was empty. Everything inside it was thrown to the floor and some things were broken.

He continued to walk when suddenly a clown falls from the ceiling and wraps a wire around Alec's neck and tugs at it before the brunet can do anything; Alec ends up going down on his knees. The clown tugged hard as Alec brought both hands to it and started struggling. Not because he needed air, but because he knows that the minion can rip his head off with the wire. Still on his knees, Alec can see a dagger laying on the floor a couple of centimeters away from him.

As he stretches his arm towards the dagger, he feels his neck start tearing open. The clown grins with malice, showing his yellow teeth as he says

"Goodbye, you filthy vampire!"

Alec continues to struggle and finally manages to grab the dagger; he swung the dagger at the clown's closer arm and cut him. The clown didn't take importance at that at first as he proceeded to choke the brunet; it wasn't until blood started pouring off his arm and he got dizzy that he released his hold on the brunet man.

As Alec coughed once released, the clown held his arm in attempt to stop the bleeding to no avail, "Wha- what did you... do to me?" asked as he grew pale immediately.

"Tenth grade biology. Brachial artery... pumps 30 liters of blood a minute. There's only five in the human body. Sorry." and with that he runs away, leaving the clown collapsed to his knees, then fell forward onto his face and stop breathing.

 

* * *

 

Thomas and Newt were making their way towards where the vortex was currently above a tent when Newt suddenly yelled _"Watch out!"_ and threw himself at Thomas, sending them both to the ground. Just at that moment a bomb goes off.

Lying side by side they both look at where the bomb had been thrown and watch Retz standing there.

"Ow, I failed! What a shame!" she grins, "Oh, well. You can always try again." with that she appears another bomb.

"Roll away!" Thomas yells as Retz throws the bomb at them but it goes off on the ground instead of on one of them.

Thomas and Newt get back on their feet as the puppeteer throws more bombs. Newt uses his magic to make a shield for both of them, but the puppeteer throws a bomb from above and Newt has to take the shield to make it appear on top of them. Retz takes the throw strings at the witch but they never touch him, as Thomas cuts them with his claws. Thomas takes a step aside and his eyes glow golden.

"So you're the one who cut my strings the last time!" Retz yelled at the brunet. "Bad doggie!" she wraps strings around his ankles and holds him up in the air only to throw him to the ground hard.

"Thomas!" Newt yells as he runs towards him.

Thomas coughed as he sat up just as the blond witch kneeled beside him. As he coughed he said under his breath he was fine. As he was standing up with Newt's help, he looked up and quickly threw the witch away from him as some strings were wrapped around his wrists. Thomas starts struggling and Retz laughs maniacally.

Then, Thomas stops faking the struggle and turns the tables, moving his wrists so he's the one holding the strings and Retz has the strings around her wrists. In a swift move, he pulls at the strings and smashes the puppeteer against the still standing stands. They all break as Retz's body collides with them. Finally, Thomas gives a twirl and throws the puppeteer hard towards one stand that collapses on top of her.

As the dust clears, Thomas takes some air and approached Newt.

"You're okay?"

"Yeah," he smiles at him.

Thomas smiles back but then they hear a noise and turn to look as Retz comes out from under the debris.

"How's it still standing?!" Thomas yells.

Now completely out of the debris, Retz takes a step back and raising both arms to her side and her left leg she yells

"Terpsichora!"

Suddenly, a monstrous ballerina with strings connecting its fingertips to Retz's body like a marionette appears behind her. Thomas and Newt's eyes widen as they see the puppeteer become the puppet.

"Exceed your limits, and dance!"

The ballerina pulls at the strings and Retz's extremities start moving- no, no moving. It starts swelling the muscles in Retz' hands and legs, prominent veins appearing on them.

_"GET DOWN!"_

Thomas doesn't question the voice -Aris' voice- orders; he grabs Newt and hugs him to his body as they fall to the ground just as a red beam comes out from somewhere and hits Retz directly on the chest, making her scream as the beam seemingly dissolves her.

Once it's over, Thomas rolls until he's on top of the blond witch and they stare at each other. Their moment is interrupted by Gally and Aris running towards them. They separate and stand up.

"Are you alright?" asks Gally.

The other two nod. Thomas turns to Aris, "Where did you two come from?"

"Oh, we were hiding from a Berserker."

"A Ber- what?"

"Long story short: that thing wants us dead."

"And where is it?" asks Newt.

"Oh, we lost it." answers Gally as Aris nods along.

"So it's still roaming somewhere?" asks Thomas.

"Probably."

Newt then notices something and looks behind them and around before he asks "Where's Minho and Teresa?"

 

* * *

 

Minho and Teresa are running, trying to find the others but to no avail.

"You don't remember where they were last time?" asks Teresa as they run.

"They must've moved! We were gone for just a few minutes!"

"I already said I'm sorry!"

They came to a stop to take some air and looked around. The whole place looked the same: stands on the ground or about to crumble. The wind had stopped but papers were occasionally flying around. Where did Thomas and the others were?

_"Minho!"_

Minho turned around as Teresa yelled and saw as a clown held her over his shoulder and went into a giant tent. Minho ran towards the tent and once he entered it he had to stop to look at the big scaffolding that was under the tent. He stared at it for almost a minute before another scream brought his out of his thoughts.

_"Minho!"_

He shook his head and looked up; he saw as the clown was climbing the scaffolding with Teresa still on his shoulder.

"Teresa! Hold on!"

He goes to climb the scaffolding but before he does it, he looks around and grabs a rope. He starts climbing carefully until he reaches the top. He gets on his feet and sees Teresa over the corner, her hands tied together.

"Look out!"

Minho turns just in time as the clown hits him with a tube. The Asian falls to his knees and groans. The clown raises the tube to hit him again, but Minho makes him tumble down with his legs. The tube rolls towards Teresa. Minho and the clown start rolling on the small space they had on top of the scaffolding as Teresa grabs the tube and uses the pointy side to slowly cut her rope.

The clown went to choke Minho, and Minho did the same. Once free, Teresa grabbed a nearby rope and tied it around her waist and to one tube of the scaffolding as a safeline and went towards the two on the ground. She hit the clown on the nape with the tube and the clown let go of Minho, seemingly unconscious. Teresa throws the tube to the void and it clanked once it touched the ground. Minho gets up on his feet and looks at the clown. He looks up at Teresa,

"I had him against the ropes."

Teresa smiles, "Aha."

Suddenly, the clown got up from the ground and pushed Teresa out of the way to reach Minho. The impact made Teresa trip backwards and into the void, but luckily her rope saved her. She secured a hand to the rope while the other one lay on her side. She looked up at the fight between the two males. The clown threw a punch to Minho's face and as the Asian recovered, the clown kicked him in the stomach. Air blew out from Minho's lungs as he fell backwards. The clown made his way to the Asian male on the ground.

"Minho, watch out!"

Minho opened his eyes just as the clown went to grab him but he managed to butthead him, gaining some time to get up and have the upper hand. Teresa smiled as he grabbed the clown from the front of his costume and held him facing him.

"It's over now." he told the clown.

The clown, however, had a trick under the sleeve. He took out a small dagger and instead of using it against Minho, he threw it towards Teresa's safeline, cutting the rope and sending Teresa hurtling down. Her hand slowly let go of the rope -it wouldn't made much a difference-, not even a yelp came out of her mouth.

Minho's eyes widen, "Teresa!"

He delivers a good punch to the clown's face that knocks the living daylights out of him, and Minho lets go of him.

Securing his rope, Minho leaps at the edge and into the void, not caring about anything else. Everything seemed to move slow motion: The pieces of debris falling beside her, her hair flowing around her face, her clothes. And he could perfectly see her face. She had an expression of true horror. Her eyes were glassy and her mouth was open as she breathed out. He didn't wasted time in stretching his hand to grab the rope. All the time her eyes were focused on him. He was getting closer to the rope. Just a little bit more.

But it seemed that Teresa sensed something as she closed her eyes with her brows furrowed and her mouth opening in a gasp. Minho had managed to grab her rope and seconds later his own rope tensed, stopping his free-fall. The rope in his hand tensed, stopping its swinging. Teresa's body arched in an unnatural position and then it came. The worst sound Minho had ever heard and that he would never forget:

Teresa's head smacked against the ground with a deafening crack and then bounced off the ground, her whole body hanging still and just inches away from the ground. The small debris fell seconds later. Minho just stared at her still figure and felt his blood gone cold.

**_No._ **

Slowly putting down her body on the ground, he used both hands to grab his own rope and he swung over one side of the scaffolding; his hand grabbed the edge and he climbed down. Once his feet touched the ground, he ran to the unconscious raven haired girl. He dropped next to her body quickly and picked her head up, cradling it in his arms.

"Teresa, c'mon, wake up." he whispered.

But she was unresponsive; eyes still closed. He shook her body gently, causing her head to fall out of his embrace. He felt something in his chest but shook it off.

"It's okay now, you're safe. C'mon, T." he said cupping her face, feeling anxious. His hands were getting clammy. He had to see her beautiful blue eyes. He just had to.

"Teresa. Wake up."

No response. He started shaking, his eyes stinging.

"Teresa, do you hear me? You can wake up now."

Still nothing.

"Teresa, let me see your eyes, just- Just open them!"

He was screaming now; screaming at her to wake up. It was getting harder for him to breathe. He suddenly choked and tears flowed down his face. He was broken. Shattered, if you will. He continued crying, hiding his face over her neck. He'd never lose a friend before, and he couldn't start right now. Not like this.

As he continued to cry over his friend's body, a shadow appeared at the end of the tent and steps could be heard. Minho raised his head and saw the toy repairer approaching them. His jaw tensed and his sorrow turned into anger,

"No! Stand back!"

But the man didn't seem to listen or he didn't care; he continued until he was standing beside Minho and looked down at Teresa. His face then filled with sadness as he looked at Teresa's unmoving body. The man held his hand to the front and as if by magic -who is he kidding, at this stage it's probably magic- a small doll -dressed as a nurse- is conjured with several medical tools and starts treating Teresa. Minho just stares as it happens, unable to move. Once he's done, the doll disappears and the toy repairer takes a step backwards,

"Treasure each moment with her, and tell her she was right. We all do have a choice."

Minho frowns but he looks down at the raven girl on his arms. Her head suddenly moved to the left and she furrowed her brows although her eyes were closed. Minho blinked his tears away and turned up to look at the toy repairer. They stared at each other but the moment was interrupted by a cawing like noise coming from the outside. Minho frowned as he has heard that noise before, but he doesn't know where. Doctor Blythe turns to him,

"You have to go. Now!"

Minho stood up and carried Teresa bridal style on his arms. He was about to run when the man spoke again,

"The scepter! Black isn't anything without it. Destroy the scepter and you'll finish him!"

Minho nodded. He went to open his mouth to thank the man but another cawing interrupted them.

"Hurry, there's no time!"

Minho nods at him and turns around and runs through the other end of the tent. Doctor Blythe turns around as a Berserker enters the tent and stands a couple of meters away from him. He conjures countless medical tools this time to inflict damage and waits as the Berserker runs towards him, ready to engage in a fight.

 

* * *

 

Alec was walking towards a yellow tent when he stopped. He shouldn't go inside the tent, knowing what happened the last time he did. Instead, he goes around the tent but once he's four steps away from the tent he hears a noise and turns around in time to avoid a punch on the face by Dick. He takes a step back,

"Dick!"

The blond man swings another punch but he doesn't manage to hit him. Alec continues avoiding his attacks when he sees a clown holding a controller and pushing the buttons. Dick attacks again and Alec realizes that he's under the clown's control.

"Dick! Listen to me!" he jumps to the side, "This isn't you! Snap out of it!"

The brunet scientist tries to run towards the clown but the clown pushes another button and he's grabbed by the waist by the blond man and thrown away. He looks at the other form the floor,

"Dick, come on!" he gets up on his feet just as the blond man approaches.

Dick manages to trick him: he swings his hand to his face but at the same time he makes him trip on his feet. As soon as Alec tries to get up, the other man throws himself on top of him and takes out a gun and holds it up to his forehead. Instead of just shooting, the other man just stays still, looking at him without blinking. Why hasn't he shot yet? Alec can see the slight trembling on his hand holding the gun and oh...

He's fighting against himself not to shoot.

Alec knows that Dick is fighting it, because if it weren't that way he would already have a hole in his head. The brunet scientist looks at him directly in the eyes and a smile appears over his mouth,

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay. It's not your fault." he whispers. Dick closes his eyes while he turns his head to the right, breaking eye contact with Alec. The younger man grabs his chin and turns it back so he's looking at him again. "No. No, if you're going to do this then you're gonna have to look me in the eye."

They stay like that for a couple of seconds before something seems to change in the blond's eyes and he's out of the trance, looking down at the brunet with. Alec nods at him, telling him he's fine. Dick gives him a short nod before he spins around pulling the trigger on the clown and breaking both the controller and shooting the clown in the heart.

The clown falls to the ground unmoving. Dick -gun still on hand- takes a step back to stand up and holds a hand to Alec, who accepts it and gets up too.

"What are you doing here?" he asks to Alec.

"Saving your ass."

Dick raises an eyebrow, "Yeah? Didn't seemed like it."

"I had it under control."

Dick manages to chuckle before turning serious. He looks around and holds his gun to Alec,

"There might be others in here. Listen to me, take this gun-

Alec shakes his head, "I don't believe in guns."

"Okay, trust me, they are very real." when the other doesn't take it, he insists, "If you're going to cover my back, take it."

Alec grabs the gun. Dick takes another gun from his holster and nods at him,

"Ok. Now, let's go."

With guns in hand, they go out of the tent.

 

* * *

 

The pack continued their way to the main tent where Mr. Black was when Thomas heard his name being yelled.

_"Thomas!"_

The brunet turned his head and saw his best friend running towards him while carrying an unconscious Teresa on his arms.

"Minho!" as Minho gets closer he takes a look at Teresa, "What happened to her?"

"It's a long story but she's fine now!" he turns to Gally, "Take care of her!" and passes the girl to the tall blond. Once Gally has her, Minho turns around, ready to run again.

"Where are you going?!" Thomas yelled after his best friend.

"To be a hero!" with that he left.

Thomas turned to the others and nodded, "Come on."

 

* * *

 

Minho runs inside the tent that has the **'Whishing Star'** singboard on top of it and runs until he reaches Sonya's cell. She still inside it although it seems to be kind of loose on the sides and she could escape. She hears him and turns around; they stare at each other before Minho speaks up,

"I'm sorry for all I said."

"It's okay. How did you found out I wasn't one of them?"

"I didn't. I just realized I already knew."

Sonya smiles as Minho approaches her cell.

"I'm here to help you escape."

"Good luck. Aside from dyeing my hair red to make me look more appealing, they carved runes on the cellar so I couldn't escape."

Minho grins, "Well, luckily for us the runes don't work on humans."

With that, Minho puts his hands over the cellar's door and pulls at it hard, opening the door. Sonya smiles at him. He enters the cellar and kneels before her, pulling at her leg iron. Taking out the vial Aris gave him, he pours some onto the leg iron. Seconds later, the metal cracks and he takes it off her leg. As soon as they both breathe in relief and before they can do anything else, the neon sign from above falls right at the entrance, lights flickering and sparks flying all over the place. There's also the bulbs breaking once they touch the ground, pieces flying. Sonya lets out a yelp as she covers her eyes, Minho doing the same. When everything calms down, they both look at the pieces of glass all over the floor, especially over the entrance.

"Here, let me."

Minho motions the redhead to get closer, and once standing beside him, he puts his arms around her, carrying her bridal style so she won't cut her feet with the glasses. He walks over the glass and outside the cellar.

"I'm doing a lot of carrying today." he mentions.

Glancing back one last time, they head to the exit in search for the rest of the pack.

 

* * *

 

The pack finally arrives at the tent. There, standing in the middle of everything was Mr. Black, holding his red scepter high as the vortex grew in size. Surrounding the man was a swirl of something grey. They didn't know what it was but it couldn't be good. Just as they are getting close, Thomas once again heard his name,

_"Thomas!"_

Thomas turned as he again heard Minho's voice and again the Asian was running towards them while carrying a girl. Minho gets to them and puts Sonya down on her feet.

"Who is she?" asks Thomas.

Minho points between them, "Thomas, Sonya. Sonya, Thomas. Sorry but right now we don't have time for a complete introduction!"

_"How nice!"_

Startled, they all turn to Mr. Black who was now facing them. Behind him appeared Gothika and a Berserker.

"Finally you're all together to witness my victory!"

"Not today!" Thomas yelled.

At the same time both teams ran towards the other. Thomas wolfed out and ran towards Mr. Black. Newt and Aris ran to Gothika, who conjured her tattoos and sent them to them. Gally invoked his sword and after leaving Teresa with Minho and Sonya, he ran towards the Berserker.

Gally's sword clashed against the Berserker's bone armor. When the sword got stuck in it, Gally quickly conjured another sword and tried to attack his side, but the creature captured his sword and threw it towards where Minho and the girls were. It luckily went above their heads.

Gothika's snake tattoo went to bite Newt but the blond threw a fireball at it. The snake avoided the attack and tried it bite again.

Thomas and Mr. Black were fighting. Thomas' claws clashed against the scepter, as the ringmaster used it to shield himself from Thomas' attacks. Growling, Thomas managed to throw the scepter away. It stuck on the ground. Both males then held each other's hands and started to test who was stronger.

From where he was, Minho saw the red scepter and he remembered what Doctor Blythe told him.

"Thomas! The scepter! Break the scepter!"

Thomas turns his head towards Minho.

"It's the only way to stop him!"

Being occupied with the ringmaster, Thomas turned his head towards Newt, who was the nearest to the scepter.

"Newt, the scepter!"

The blond witch turned to him and then turned to the scepter; he ran towards it. Seeing that, Mr. Black managed to throw Thomas to the ground and, taking a small staff out of his robe, shot out a beam at Newt before he reached the scepter. Once it hit him, the blond was tossed to the middle of the battlefield while a giant hourglass took form around him, imprisoning him. He puts both hands over the glass, looking outside, realizing he was trapped. Thomas smashed his body against Mr. Black, causing the small staff to fall to the ground, break and dissolve. From the ground, Thomas turned his face to where the hourglass was, his eyes widening at seeing Newt trapped.

"Newt!"

Sand poured from the top of the hourglass into the second level, crushing Newt beneath it. Newt covered his head and moved to the side, trying to avoid the sand. He made a move of his wrist but nothing happened.

Thomas got up on his feet and tried to run towards the scepter but something grabbed him from the ankle. He angled his body to see what was grabbing him and was the Berserker. Before he could even curse, the creature lifted him from the ground and started spinning around.

"Gally, I thought you were distracting him!" Thomas yelled as he was spinned.

Gally got up on his elbows and spat blood, "What do you think I'm doing?!"

Finally, the Berserker threw Thomas towards Minho's direction. He fell beside his best friend. He moaned in pain as he rearranged his shoulder.

_"Thomas!"_

Hearing his name being said with an accent, Thomas turned to look at the hourglass. Newt banged onto the glass. The sand was quickly filling the bottom, and would bury him with it. It was already at his hips; his eyes screamed panic.

Thomas felt someone tapping his shoulder and he turned to Sonya, who gave him Gally's sword that had been previously thrown their way.

"Thanks."

He got up and with sword on hand, ran towards the hourglass but again got intervened, this time by some green vines coming from Gothika's tattoos. They wrapped around him and he tried to cut them with the sword. As he did that, Aris tried to use his magic against the hourglass but a rope wrapped around his hands. He turned his head to find Gothika on the other end and she smirked at him before pulling at the rope. Aris fell to the ground and he was dragged by the rope until Gally threw to the ground and cut it.

Aris got up on his feet, "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Slowly opening her eyes, Teresa blinked a few times as she regained consciousness. She was lying on her side and before her was an epic fight. Aris and Gally nodded to each other and they ran to opposite sides. Airs ran towards Gothika and Gally towards the Berserker. Newt was inside an hourglass and it was filling quickly. And Thomas was cutting free from some vines on the ground. Minho and some girl with red hair were watching the fight beside her, but they didn't notice her waking up. Teresa slowly sat and brought a hand to her head. She looked around and saw the scepter stuck on the ground away from the battle.

Gally continued to fight against the Berserker. He was about to invoke his sword when the creature captured his arm and twisted it, then dug his bone blade into Gally's abdomen. The tall blond yelled in pain as he fell to the ground. The Berserker stood big above him and raised his bone blade to deliver another blow. Gally stood on the ground, holding his wound and waiting for the inevitable when a gunshot was heard and then the Berserker stood still. Gally stared at it. The Berserker slowly turned around and towards where the gunshot came.

Dick stood there, still holding his gun towards the creature. The Berserker was about to walk towards him when another gunshot sounded, and another and another. Dick turned to his side to see Alec emptying his gun in the Berserker until the creature stopped. The three of them held their breath and finally the Berserker went down to the ground beside Gally. Gally breathe out in relief and look over Dick and Alec and nodded at them.

Thomas went down to the ground again. He stood up and lightly swayed to the side as he was getting tired.

"HA! Puny humans!" declared the ringmaster.

Newt was almost completely under the sand, covering up 'till his neck. Gally was wounded, still over the ground. Alec and Dick stayed in the same place with their guns ready in case they were needed. Aris was using his magic to keep both tigers from the tattoos from attacking him.

Mr. Black grinned as he saw the pack ad their predicament.

"You are no match for my supreme strength and soon all of you will be death under my feet!"

_"Oh yeah?!"_

They all turned to see Teresa standing on the other side of the battlefield, holding the scepter.

"We'll see about that."

With that said, Teresa raised the scepter high and brought it back down to the ground, smashing it.

 _"NOOOO!"_  Mr. Black yelled as it was smashed.

Red smoke came out of the scepter and the vortex above them closed. The sky was still bleeding red and grey clouds started to appear on the sky. Everything stayed still for a couple for seconds. Then, it happened.

A blinding light appeared from the sky and then like a lighting it struck where the scepter had been. A new vortex opened and wind started blowing until it turned into dragging air. The stands started to shake and soon were being dragged into the vortex. As they all were staring in shocked, Thomas quickly grabbed the sword from the ground and ran back to the hourglass. He smashed the glass once, twice and at the third one it broke and sand flushed out, a moments later Newt too. He was unconscious when Thomas had him on his arms. The vortex continued dragging the stands and next where the tents.

"What's happening?!" asks Thomas.

"The vortex will consume everything!" Aris yelled. "It will consume everything from the carnival!"

Gally invokes a sword and impales it over the ground. "Hold on onto something! We're gonna go for a ride!"

The vortex starts absorbing more and more of the carnival. The tents flew straight into it. Aris goes to Gally's sword and grabs onto it. He holds out his hand to Minho, who was crawling towards him with Sonya and Teresa behind. He grabbed Aris' hands and Sonya grabbed his and Teresa grabbed Sonya's. Alec buried a pipe in the ground and held onto Dick's bicep as the man grabbed into the pipe.

Thomas and Newt were the ones unprotected, still lying were the hourglass was. Soon, the hourglass and the sand were absorbed into the vortex and the two of them lay uncovered. They were grabbing on each other's arms and were facing the other.

"Now what?!" asked Newt.

"Now we wait until everything from the carnival goes through that vortex!"

The tent and the scaffolding came through the sky and were absorbed into the vortex. Several stands followed and that's when Gothika tried to use the tattoo of wings on her back to fly away.

"Oh no, you won't!" with his free hand, Aris made a magic rope and wrapped it around her wings and tugged at them hard. Her wings were ripped away from her and Gothika fell and was sucked into the vortex.

There were a few more things from the carnival to disappear, so they just had to endure it.

Still looking into Newt's eyes, Thomas noticed something standing behind him: Mr. Black. He was making his way to Newt and the wind didn't seem to bother him at all. Thomas gripped Newt's hands hard and the other frowned. In a moment, when the ringmaster was standing just above Newt, Thomas got up on his feet and ran to Mr. Black, sending them both to the ground, rolling. Thomas started to crawl away but the ringmaster grabbed him by the foot.

"Thomas!"

The vortex started to suck in harder, the pack's legs are not longer touching the ground; instead they are floating. The vortex started pulling both Mr. Black and Thomas. The brunet struggled to make the ringmaster to let go of his foot.

"Why won't it close?!" asks Teresa.

"The ring master isn't inside the vortex, that's why!" Aris yells back.

Mr. Black didn't let go of Thomas' leg and they were both being slowly dragged in, so Thomas had an idea. He turned to look at Newt and for a moment they stare at each other and the blond nodded, having understood.

Thomas let go of the ground and the vortex started dragging them faster. Mr. Black noticed it and let go of Thomas so he wouldn't be dragged and tried to hold onto the ground.

"Newt, now!"

Newt appeared a blue rope made of magic and quickly Thomas grabbed it; once he had his hands on it, the blond witch pulled at it with magic and Thomas was instantly beside Newt, both of them staring at Mr. Black. The ringmaster got pulled into the vortex screaming and as soon as he disappeared the vortex closed. The pack's legs touch the ground again and they breathe out in relief.

The pack let go of each other and the sword and slowly started to stand up. The red color of the sky disappeared and instead the pack were shown the yellow/orange sky as the sun came out, showing the first rays of sunlight, announcing that a brand new day was beginning.

"Well, look at that." Minho says, "It's officially the 31st. Happy Halloween, everyone."

Still on the ground lying side to side, Newt and Thomas turn their heads to look at each other.

"Are you alright?" asks Thomas.

"Yeah... You?"

"'m fine."

Thomas nods, "Good."

They stare at each other for another moment before Minho runs towards them, worried about his best friend. The two of them get up before Minho wraps the brunet in a hug.

"You scared me, you asshole!"

"Yeah. Sorry." Thomas says hugging him back.

Sonya and Teresa turn to look at each other, and realize they haven't introduced themselves.

"Sonya." the redheaded girl says, offering a smile.

The raven girl nods, "Teresa."

Aris turns to see Gally holding his wounded side in worry and the tall sandy blond notices.

"I'm fine. It isn't as bad as it looks."

"What. I wasn't worried."

"Aha,"

Aris pouts, acting as if he's offended although he's embarrassed. Alec approached the brunet witch and whispers something on his ear. Aris nods.

Just as Dick is putting his gun away and is about to open his mouth to question this whole ordeal, Aris appears behind him and moves his hands above his head, green magic flowing through them and over Dick's head and he stills.

"Wow, what are you doing?" asks Minho.

Alec is the one who answers, "He can't know about all of this. You guys, the carnival, the supernatural."

"You're gonna kill him?!"

Aris answers next, "No! But I'm gonna erase his memories of this day. Well, at least since he came into the carnival." he moves his hands one more time and the pulse of magic disappears. The man's eyes close and he falls unconscious but Alec catches him.

"Is that it?" asks Teresa.

"Not exactly." Minho says, "Hey, Aris. How do you feel about one more spell?" he asks turning towards Sonya.

They ended up opening a portal in the middle of the empty lot where the carnival used to be. Now there wasn't anything there, not papers or garbage. As the portal opens, Aris takes a step aside and looks at the redhead girl,

"This portal will take you to whatever place you think of. Just think about your home and you'll be there."

Sonya smiled and turned to the pack, "Thank you so much for everything." she held her dress so it wouldn't drag all over the ground. She turned to Minho, "And especially thank you, Minho."

The Asian shrugged, "Just doing my job. Saving people." Thomas nudges at him playfully and he chuckles.

Sonya chuckled too and nodded at them. Still holding the front part of her dress, she turned around and slowly but firmly entered the portal. After she entered, the portal closed and disappeared.

Minho nods, putting his hands on his hips, "Okay. We've saved everyone's lives, returned the 'princess' to her castle, defeated the bad guys and live to tell it. Now what?" he asks looking at Thomas.

"Now? Now we go to school."

The pack's eyes widen at that and they all at the same time yell

_"WHAT?!"_

 

* * *

 

The pack ended up going to school after all. Good thing nobody remembered going to the carnival the last day. They helped Alec bring Dick to his -Dick's- place and laid him on his bed. Thomas didn't want to go home so he texted Vince and told him he was at Minho's and that he was fine. Aris used his magic and healed them before having to go to school. Now at school, the students were walking and talking through the hallway, as they made their way to their classes or to their lockers. Thomas was taking his books out of his locker.

"Look at them." Minho said beside him, "They all go on with their lives as if this town hadn't been on the verge of destruction."

"It's the way it has to be."

Thomas closes his locker and turns to look at the hallway. Girls giggling as they gossip between them. Some guys pushing at others as they are making plans for tonight. Emma walking down the corridor, wearing Sandra's daisies anklet on her wrist and talking to Sandra's boyfriend, Connor. Some teachers holding their coffees as they made their way to class. He then sees Aris and Gally walking towards a class, the lighter brunet telling the other something as Gally brought a hand to his still recovering side. Teresa appears behind Thomas and Minho holding a book close to her chest as Minho sighs,

"It's just another boring day at school."

Teresa nods, "Just like any other day in Beacon Hills."

"Yeah..." Thomas says.

Thomas watches Newt going upstairs for his next class. The witch seems to notice being watched so he turns his head to look around and to Thomas' direction. They stare at each other. Newt smiles at him and even waves and Thomas returns the smile.

"Just like any other day in Beacon Hills."

As Newt disappears, Thomas feels someone pulling him down by the shoulders and knows it Minho, laughing as he tells him something. Teresa chuckles too. Thomas tries to get free from his friend's hold, and once he manages he runs away. Minho and Teresa run after him laughing, and Thomas forgets what he was even thinking before. He just enjoyed these moments.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next season will come in two weeks! So stay tuned! Thank you again for reading this season!


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